Hero in me
by StarLover'sLife
Summary: Persephany Jackson wasn't always so sure about fighting the Titans. But when a pile of books drop on Nico's head, she has the chance to learn what it takes to be a real hero. Fem/Percy
1. Chapter 1

What should have happened

Girl Percy

Chapter 1

My name is Percy Jackson. I just turned 15 years old, a few weeks left of freedom, before I have to kick some Titan ass. This summer, I'm hoping everything will be normal. Than again, Camp Half-Blood is anything _but _normal. This morning wasn't different from any other day, once afternoon hit though, that's when everything went insane.

It was lunch time, I was sitting alone at my table as usual, when my best friend that I may or may not have a crush on Nico sat down beside me. My eyes opened almost comically, "N-N-Nico? W-what are you doing here?" Nico hasn't been to camp for awhile. Nico snorted, " Hello to you too". I hugged him tightly, " I haven't seen you for _ever!_ You can't just disappear man, its not cool! I have been so worried! I mean, you could have died, or have been eaten, which is pretty much dying but still! Why do you think you can just-" " Shut up Percy" Nico interrupted, " I need to tell you something, the Fates are going to-" suddenly a pile of books dropped on his head. " Ah shit! That hurt!" He screamed. I bit my lip to refrain from laughing, it was just to damn funny! I picked up the first book and read; _Percy Jackson and the lightning thief_. " Shhhiiiitttttt!" I mumble under my breath. I stood up from my seat and saw Chiron standing at the main table. I picked up all of the books and walked over to him to give them to him.

When he saw what had caused all the chaos, his face turned grave. He stomped his hoof to get attention. " It seems that we have some books here about Ms. Jackson. We shall read all of them, lessons will be canceled for the time being. Those who deem this below themselves may be excused. he announced. No one moved. "Good, now let us begin. The first book is called _The Lightning Thief_, who wishes to read first?" When no one volunteered he smiled, " its in Ancient Greek writing, we will all be able to read". Once he said that, Annabeth's hand shot up in the air, big surprise there. She walked over to Chiron and took the book.

**" Percy Jackson and The Lightning Thief"**

**"I Accidentally Vaporize my Pre-Algebra Teacher,**

"Hehe, yeah I remember that. Wasn't exactly a accident." I chuckled as everyone stared at me in disbelief. Annabeth giggled, " Wow Percy, you're _soo_ strange !" I smiled, not the least bit upset, after all it is the truth.

**Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood.**

"Why the hell not?" asked Travis indignant. " Maybe the fact that you're hunted down by monsters all your life?" Nico asked sarcastically. " Oh yeah, must of forgotten about that part" Travis said sheepishly. I rolled my eyes.

**If you're reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is: close this book right now. Believe what ever lie your mom or dad told you about your birth, and try to lead a normal life. Being a half-blood is dangerous. It's scary. Most of the time, it gets you killed in painful, nasty ways. If you're a normal kid, reading this because you think it's fiction, great. Read on. I envy you for being able to believe that none of this ever happened. But if you recognize yourself in these pages—if you feel something stirring inside—stop reading immediately. You might be one of us. And once you know that, it's only a matter of time before they sense it too, and they'll come for you and possibly rip you to pieces, just saying. **

Clarisse was shocked, " H-, B-. T-that was actually good advice!" she exclaimed looking surprised. " Love you too Clarisse" I mumbled.

**Don't say I didn't warn you.**

**My name is Persephany Jackson, but you can call me Percy.**

" Wait a minute! Persephany? That's your real name?" Connor yelled surprised. I looked at him with a eyebrow raised, " Well you didn't I was named after a boy did you?". Connor blushed, I rolled my eyes. This was gonna be a _long_ book.

**I'm twelve years old. Until a few months ago, I was a boarding student at Yancy Academy, a private school for troubled kids in upstate New York. Am I a troubled kid? Yeah. You could say that. I could start at any point in my short miserable life to prove it, but things really started going bad last May, when our sixth-grade class took a field trip to Manhattan— twenty-eight mental-case kids and two teachers on a yellow school bus, heading to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to look at ancient Greek and Roman stuff. I know—it sounds like torture. Most Yancy field trips were. But Mr. Brunner, our Latin teacher, was leading this trip, so I had hopes. Not big hopes mind you, but hopes none the less.**

"Go Chiron!" Silena shrieked. A few people snickered.

**Mr. Brunner was this middle-aged guy in a motorized wheelchair. He had thinning hair and a scruffy beard and a frayed tweed jacket, which always smelled like coffee. You wouldn't think he'd be cool, but he told stories and jokes and let us play games in class. He also had this awesome collection of Roman armor and weapons, so he was the only teacher whose class didn't put me to sleep. I hoped the trip would be okay. At least, I hoped that for once I wouldn't get in trouble. Boy, was I wrong. See, bad things happen to me on field trips. Like at my fifth-grade school, when we went to the Saratoga battlefield, I had this "accident" with a Revolutionary War cannon. **

Nico laughed, "Right Percy, accident." I shrugged, not slightly abashed.

**I wasn't aiming for the school bus, but of course I got expelled anyways. It was kind of fun though. And before that, at my fourth-grade school, when we took a behind-the-scenes tour of the Marine World shark pool, I sort of hit the wrong lever on the catwalk and our class took an unplanned swim.**

"But sharks are so cute!" I said confused. Malcom laughed.

**Don't know why everyone was so scared, sharks are adorable!**

Malcom chuckled " You never change do you" he said. I blushed slightly, it wasn't my fault they were cute. Nico glared at Malcolm, I looked at him confused before turning my attention to the book.

**And the time before that... Well, you get the idea.**

**This trip, I was determined to be good. All the way into the city, I put up with Nancy Bobofit, the freckly, redheaded kleptomaniac girl, hitting my best friend Grover in the back of the head with chunks of peanut butter-and-ketchup sandwich.**

"That sounds like something only Grover would eat" Nico laughed. I giggled, it was so true. " Hey!" Grover shouted, annoyed. My giggles started getting stronger when I noticed Malcom glaring back at Nico. I bit my lip, trying to figure out what was their problem when Annabeth started reading again.

**Grover was an easy target. He was scrawny. He cried when he got frustrated. He must've been held back several grades, because he was the only sixth grader with acne and the start of a wispy beard on his chin. On top of all that, he was crippled. He had a note excusing him from PE for the rest of his life because he had some kind of muscular disease in his legs. Lucky him, I hate having the guys staring at me in my gym outfit. **

Half of the guys narrowed their eyes ( hey that rhymed!). Nico was glaring at the book so fiercely I thought it would burst into flames.

**He walked funny, like every step hurt him, but don't let that fool you. You should've seen him run when it was enchilada day in the cafeteria.**

"Very discreet Grover" Malcolm said, laughing. My shoulders shook with silent laughter when Malcom winked at me. My face flushed red. Nico shifted his glare from the book to Malcom. I rolled my eyes at him and placed my head in his lap, fully prepared to fall asleep if the book started getting boring. He changed his heated glare to a smug grin before listening to the story.

**Anyway, Nancy Bobofit was throwing wads of sandwich that stuck in his curly brown hair, and she knew I couldn't do anything back to her because I was already on probation. The headmaster had threatened me with death by in-school suspension if anything bad, embarrassing, or even mildly entertaining happened on this trip. Though I don't know why, I make these things exciting!**

Nico laughed at me, " I can see you saying that". I chuckled.

**"I'm going to kill her," I mumbled. Grover tried to calm me down. **

**"It's okay. I like peanut butter." He dodged another piece of Nancy's lunch. **

**"That's it." I started to get up, but Grover pulled me back to my seat. **

**"You're already on probation," he reminded me. "You know who'll get blamed if anything happens. "**

**Looking back on it, I wish I'd decked Nancy Bobofit right then and there. In-school suspension would've been nothing compared to the mess I was about to get myself into. **

Malcom looked at me worried, " You didn't get hurt did you?" he asked. I shook my head and smiled at his concern. He gave a sigh of relief.

**Mr. Brunner led the museum tour. He rode up front in his wheelchair, guiding us through the big echoey galleries, past marble statues and glass cases full of really old black-and-orange pottery. It blew my mind that this stuff had survived for two thousand, three thousand yea He gathered us around a thirteen-foot-tall stone column with a big sphinx on the top, and started telling us how it was a grave marker, a stele, for a girl about our age. He told us about the carvings on the sides. I was trying to listen to what he had to say, because it was kind of interesting, but everybody around me was talking, and every time I told them to shut up, the other teacher chaperone, Mrs. Dodds, would give me the evil eye. Mrs. Dodds was this little math teacher from Georgia who always wore a black leather jacket, even though she was fifty years old. She looked mean enough to ride a Harley right into your locker.**

" Trust me, she has no problems doing that" Nico shuddered. I grinned, poor Nico.

**She had come to Yancy halfway through the year, when our last math teacher had a nervous breakdown. From her first day, Mrs. Dodds loved Nancy Bobofit and figured I was devil spawn. She would point her crooked finger at me and say, "Now, honey," real sweet, and I knew I was going to get after-school detention for a month. One time, after she'd made me erase answers out of old math workbooks until midnight, I told Grover I didn't think Mrs. Dodds was human. He looked at me, real serious, and said, "You're absolutely right."**

**Mr. Brunner kept talking about Greek funeral art. Finally, Nancy Bobofit snickered something about the naked guy on the stele, and I turned around and said, **

**"Will you shut up?" **

Some people grinned at me, silently laughing at me. Most of them just outright laughed at me. I poured," Aww don't worry, I still love you" Nico said, trying to contain his laughter. I mock glared at him.

**It came out louder than I meant it to. The whole group laughed. Mr. Brunner stopped his story. **

**"Ms. Jackson," he said, "did you have a comment?"**

**My face was totally red. I said, **

**"No, sir." **

**Mr. Brunner pointed to one of the pictures on the stele. **

**"Perhaps you'll tell us what this picture represents? **

**I looked at the carving, and felt a flush of relief, because I actually recognized it. **

**"That's Kronos eating his kids, right?" **

**"Yes," Mr. Brunner said, obviously not satisfied." "And he did this because ..."**

**"Well..." I racked my brain to remember. "Kronos was the king god, and—" **

"God?" everyone asked. "Lay off, Ancient Greece didn't have much meaning to me then" I pouted.

**"God?" Mr. Brunner asked. **

**"Titan," I corrected myself. "And ... he didn't trust his kids, who were the gods. So, um, Kronos ate them, right? But his wife hid baby Zeus, and gave Kronos a rock to eat instead. And later, when Zeus grew up, he tricked his dad, Kronos, into barfing up his brothers and sisters—" **

**"Eeew!" said one of the girls behind me. **

**"—and so there was this big fight between the gods and the Titans," I continued, "and the gods won." **

**Some snickers from the group. Behind me, Nancy Bobofit mumbled to a friend, **

**"Like we're going to use this in real life. Like it's going to say on our job applications, 'Please explain why Kronos ate his kids.'" **

**"And why, Ms. Jackson," Brunner said, "to paraphrase Miss Bobofit's excellent question, does this matter in real life?" **

Nico laughed loudly, " Busted bit-". I hit his arm, "Nico! Language! There's young kids here!" He smiled sheepishly. Malcom sneered at him, which made me raise my eyebrow at him. He blushed when he caught my eye.

**"Busted," Grover muttered. **

**"Shut up," Nancy hissed, her face even brighter red than her hair.**

**At least Nancy got packed, too. Mr. Brunner was the only one who ever caught her saying anything wrong. He had radar ears.**

**I thought about his question, and shrugged. "I don't know, sir."**

**"I see." Mr. Brunner looked disappointed. "Well, half credit, Ms. Jackson. Zeus did indeed feed Kronos a mixture of mustard and wine, which made him disgorge his other five children, who, of course, being immortal gods, had been living and growing up completely undigested in the Titan's stomach. The gods defeated their father, sliced him to pieces with his own scythe, and scattered his remains in Tartarus, the darkest part of the Underworld. On that happy note, it's time for lunch. Mrs. Dodds, would you lead us back outside?"**

**The class drifted off, the girls holding their stomachs, the guys pushing each other around and acting like doofuses.**

**Grover and I were about to follow when Mr. Brunner said, **

**"Ms. Jackson."**

**I knew that was coming. I told Grover to keep going. Then I turned toward Mr. Brunner. **

**"Sir?"**

**Mr. Brunner had this look that wouldn't let you go— intense brown eyes that could've been a thousand years old and had seen everything.**

**"You must learn the answer to my question," Mr. Brunner told me.**

**"About the Titans?"**

**"About real life. And how your studies apply to it."**

**"Oh."**

**"What you learn from me," he said, "is vitally important. I expect you to treat it as such. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson."**

**I wanted to get angry, this guy pushed me so hard.**

"He has to Annie, it's the only way to give you alive" Nico whispered to me. I smiled at the nickname and at his caring, " I know" I mumbled.

**I mean, sure, it was kind of cool on tournament days, when he dressed up in a suit of Roman armor and shouted: "What ho!'" and challenged us, sword-point against chalk, to run to the board and name every Greek and Roman person who had ever lived, and their mother, and what god they worshiped. But Mr. Brunner expected me to be as good as everybody else, despite the fact that I have dyslexia and attention deficit disorder and I had never made above a C— in my life. No—he didn't expect me to be as good; he expected me to be better. And I just couldn't learn all those names and facts, much less spell them correctly. I mumbled something about trying harder, while Mr. Brunner took one long sad look at the stele, like he'd been at this girl's funeral.**

"Were you?" I asked. He nodded.

**He told me to go outside and eat my lunch. The class gathered on the front steps of the museum, where we could watch the foot traffic along Fifth Avenue. Overhead, a huge storm was brewing, with clouds blacker than I'd ever seen over the city. I figured maybe it was global warming or something, because the weather all across New York State had been weird since Christmas. We all glanced out the window. We'd had massive snow storms, flooding, wildfires from lightning strikes. I wouldn't have been surprised if this was a hurricane blowing in. Nobody else seemed to notice. Some of the guys were pelting pigeons with Lunchables crackers. Nancy Bobofit was trying to pickpocket something from a lady's purse, and, of course, Mrs. Dodds wasn't seeing a thing. Grover and I sat on the edge of the fountain, away from the others. We thought that maybe if we did that, everybody wouldn't know we were from that school—the school for loser freaks who couldn't make it elsewhere.**

**"Detention?" Grover asked.**

**"Nah," I said. "Not from Brunner. I just wish he'd lay off me sometimes. I mean—I'm not a genius."**

**Grover didn't say anything for a while. Then, when I thought he was going to give me some deep philosophical comment to make me feel better, he said, **

**"Can I have your apple?"**

Annabeth shook her head giggling, " Classic Grover. Grover blushed bright red.

**I didn't have much of an appetite, so I let him take it. I watched the stream of cabs going down Fifth Avenue, and thought about my mom's apartment, only a little ways uptown from where we sat. I hadn't seen her since Christmas. I wanted so bad to jump in a taxi and head home. She'd hug me and be glad to see me, but she'd be disappointed, too. She'd send me right back to Yancy, remind me that I had to try harder, even if this was my sixth school in six years and I was probably going to be kicked out again. I wouldn't be able to stand that sad look she'd give me. **

**Mr. Brunner parked his wheelchair at the base of the handicapped ramp. He ate celery while he read a paperback novel. A red umbrella stuck up from the back of his chair, making it look like a motorized cafe table. I was about to unwrap my sandwich when Nancy Bobofit appeared in front of me with her ugly friends—I guess she'd gotten tired of stealing from the tourists—and dumped her half-eaten lunch in Grover's lap.**

**"Oops." **

**She grinned at me with her crooked teeth. Her freckles were orange, as if somebody had spray-painted her face with liquid Cheetos.**

**I tried to stay cool. The school counselor had told me a million times, "Count to ten, get control of your temper." But I was so mad my mind went blank. A wave roared in my ears. I don't remember touching her, but the next thing I knew, Nancy was sitting on her butt in the fountain, screaming, **

**"Percy pushed me!"**

" That was so unfair, I didn't even touch that angry Cheeto, girl, type thing!" I shrieked in annoyance. Travis raised his eyebrows, " Cheeto, girl thing?" I blushed, " Her freckles made her look like a Cheeto!" I said in my defense. Travis nodded his head slowly, as if trying to humor a five year old. I pouted, which I seem to be doing a lot lately.

**Mrs. Dodds materialized next to us. Some of the kids were whispering: **

**"Did you see—"**

**"—the water—"**

**"—like it grabbed her—"**

**I didn't know what they were talking about. All I knew was that I was in trouble again. As soon as Mrs. Dodds was sure poor little Nancy was okay, promising to get her a new shirt at the museum gift shop, etc., etc., Mrs. Dodds turned on me. There was a triumphant fire in her eyes, as if I'd done something she'd been waiting for all semester. **

**"But I didn't even touch her!" I yelled**

**"Now, honey—"**

**"I know," I grumbled. "A month erasing workbooks."**

**That wasn't the right thing to say.**

**"Come with me," Mrs. Dodds said.**

**"Wait!" Grover yelped. "It was me. I pushed her."**

There was silence, then," Whoooo Go Grover!" Silena screamed. Almost everyone chuckled before complementing him on his bravery. I smiled at him, he was a great friend.

**I stared at him, stunned. I couldn't believe he was trying to cover for me. Mrs. Dodds scared Grover to death. She glared at him so hard his whiskery chin trembled.**

**"I don't think so, Mr. Underwood," she said.**

**"But—"**

**"You—will—stay—here."**

**Grover looked at me desperately.**

**"It's okay, man," I told him. "Thanks for trying."**

**"Honey," Mrs. Dodds barked at me. "Now."**

**Nancy Bobofit smirked. I gave her my deluxe I'll-kill-you-later stare. Then I turned to face Mrs. Dodds, but she wasn't there. She was standing at the museum entrance, way at the top of the steps, gesturing impatiently at me to come on. How'd she get there so fast? I have moments like that a lot, when my brain falls asleep or something, and the next thing I know I've missed something, as if a puzzle piece fell out of the universe and left me staring at the blank place behind it. The school counselor told me this was part of the ADHD, my brain misinterpreting things. **

" I don't think I that's what it is" Malcom said nervously.

**I wasn't so sure.**

I grinned at him. Seems like we think alike.

**I went after Mrs. Dodds. Halfway up the steps, I glanced back at Grover. He was looking pale, cutting his eyes between me and Mr. Brunner, like he wanted Mr. Brunner to notice what was going on, but Mr. Brunner was absorbed in his novel. I looked back up. Mrs. Dodds had disappeared again. She was now inside the building, at the end of the entrance hall. Okay, I thought. She's going to make me buy a new shirt for Nancy at the gift shop.**

"Not really." I muttered. Nico glance at me, concerned

**But apparently that wasn't the plan. I followed her deeper into the museum. When I finally caught up to her, we were back in the Greek and Roman section. Except for us, the gallery was empty. Mrs. Dodds stood with her arms crossed in front of a big marble frieze of the Greek gods. She was making this weird noise in her throat, like growling. Even without the noise, I would've been nervous. It's weird being alone with a teacher, especially Mrs. Dodds. Something about the way she looked at the frieze, as if she wanted to pulverize it...**

**"You've been giving us problems, honey," she said.**

**I did the safe thing. I said, "Yes, ma'am."**

**She tugged on the cuffs of her leather jacket. "Did you really think you would get away with it?"**

**The look in her eyes was beyond mad. It was evil. She's a teacher, I thought nervously. It's not like she's going to hurt me.**

**I said, "I'll—I'll try harder, ma'am."**

**Thunder shook the building.**

**"We are not fools, Percy Jackson," Mrs. Dodds said. "It was only a matter of time before we found you out. Confess, and you will suffer less pain."**

**I didn't know what she was talking about. All I could think of was that the teachers must've found the illegal stash of candy I'd been selling out of my dorm room. Or maybe they'd realized I got my essay on Tom Sawyer from the Internet without ever reading the book and now they were going to take away my grade. Or worse, they were going to make me read the book.**

Annabeth rolled her eyes, " Of course Percy, that's what she's going to do" she said in a conceding tone. I pouted, it's not fair! How was I suppose to now that bitch was a Fury?

**"Well?" she demanded.**

**"Ma'am, I don't..."**

**"Your time is up," she hissed.**

**Then the weirdest thing happened. Her eyes began to glow like barbecue coals. Her fingers stretched, turning into talons. Her jacket melted into large, leathery wings. She wasn't human. She was a shriveled hag with bat wings and claws and a mouth fed so farull of yellow fangs, and she was about to slice me to ribbons. She was absolutely _gorgeous._ Then things got even stranger, if you can imagine that. Mr. Brunner, who'd been out in front of the museum a minute before, wheeled his chair into the doorway of the gallery, holding a pen in his hand.**

**"What ho, Percy!" he shouted, and tossed the pen through the air.**

**Mrs. Dodds lunged at me. With a yelp, I dodged and felt talons slash the air next to my ear. I snatched the ballpoint pen out of the air. " Oh thanks Mr. Brunner, this will help me write a letter to Mrs. Dodds asking her not to _MURDER ME_!"**

Chiron grinned sheepishly, " In hind sight, that may have not been the best idea" he said, rubbing his neck. Connor laughed, " You think?" Chiron blushed pink.

**I screamed at him in my head. But the strangest thing that happened was when it hit my hand, it wasn't a pen anymore. It was a sword—Mr. Brunner's bronze sword, which he always used on tournament day. Mrs. Dodds spun toward me with a murderous look in her eyes. My knees were jelly. My hands were shaking so bad I almost dropped the sword.**

**She snarled, "Die, honey!"**

**And she flew straight at me. Absolute terror ran through my body. I did the only thing that came naturally: I swung the sword. The metal blade hit her shoulder and passed clean through her body as if she were made of water. Hisss! Mrs. Dodds was a sand castle in a power fan. She exploded into yellow powder, vaporized on the spot, leaving nothing but the smell of sulfur and a dying screech and a chill of evil in the air, as if those two glowing red eyes were still watching me. **

Suddenly Nico pulled me up into a huge, " I'm glad you're ok" he mumbled into my ear. I blushed slightly, then answered back, " you can get rid of me that easily" I whispered. He grinned against my cheek, "Good" he said softly before breaking the hug.

**I was alone. There was a ballpoint pen in my hand. Mr. Brunner wasn't there. Nobody was there but me. My hands were still trembling. My lunch must've been contaminated with magic mushrooms or something. Had I imagined the whole thing? All I know is that I've been wishing to do that to horrible Mrs. Dodds. A sudden thought occurred to me; this lady's married? Her poor husband!**

" She's not actually married is she?" I asked, horrified at the thought of the hag being married and possibly having kids. Chiron chuckled, " No need to worry, she's not married. It's just a pseudo." I sighed in relief, Nico smirked at the look on my face.

**I went back outside. It had started to rain. Grover was sitting by the fountain, a museum map tented over his head. Nancy Bobofit was still standing there, soaked from her swim in the fountain, grumbling to her ugly friends. When she saw me, she said, **

**"I hope Mrs. Kerr whipped your butt."**

**I said, "Who?"**

**"Our teacher. Duh!"**

**I blinked. We had no teacher named Mrs. Kerr. **

**"Are you feeling well? Do you have a fever, or sudden amnesia?" I asked Nancy.**

**She just rolled her eyes at me.**

**I asked Grover where Mrs. Dodds was.**

**He said, "Who?"**

**But he paused first, and he wouldn't look at me, so I knew he was messing with me.**

**"Not really funny, man," I told him. "This is like, someone jumping of a cliff serious."**

**Grover still looked at me slightly confused, but I saw right through him.**

**Thunder boomed overhead. I saw Mr. Brunner sitting under his red umbrella, reading his book, as if he'd never moved. I went over to him. He looked up, a little distracted. **

**"Ah, that would be my pen. Please bring your own writing utensil in the future, Ms. Jackson."**

**I handed Mr. Brunner his pen. I hadn't even realized I was still holding it.**

**"Sir," I said, "where's Mrs. Dodds?"**

**He stared at me blankly. "Who?"**

**"The other chaperone. Mrs. Dodds. The math teacher."**

**He frowned and sat forward, looking mildly concerned. "Percy, there is no Mrs. Dodds on this trip. As far as I know, there has never been a Mrs. Dodds at Yancy Academy. Are you feeling all right?"**

"That confused me so much" I chuckled. Annabeth put down the book. "And that is the end of the chapter" she stated. "Finally", I thought to myself, "I was close to falling asleep."

"Who's reading the next chapter" she asked. Clarisse volunteered. "Might as well do something" she grumbled.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N- Thank you for everyone for reviewing and all of the people who added me/this story to their favorites and alerts! I decided to update earlier than I expected. I'm also working on a new story, it's called Conflicted. Harry Potter fans, check it out please!

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

"Let's take a 10 minute break before we continue" Chiron suggested.

Many got up, stretching and talking about what had happened so far. Malcolm stood up and walked over to me.

"Hey, take a walk with me?" he asked.

I smiled at him, "Sure" I replied.

He grinned. We walked over to the beach, my favorite place at camp and sat down.

He looked over at me, "How do you know that Nico kid?" he asked me.

"I met Nico almost two years ago. I was one of the people who told him that he and his sister were Demi-gods" I told him smiling, remembering how care free he used to be.

"So there's never any trouble with your friendship even though his three years younger than you?" he questioned.

I bit my lip, trying to figure out how to explain, "Well you know how Nico's dad is Hades right? Well Nico told me that his dad felt kind of guilty for putting them in the Lotus Casino. When you're in the casino, time sort of stops for you. It will feel lie you're there for two days, but in actual fact you're there for two weeks. Nico said that he made his father give him back two years on his birthday, and because he's the God of death, he got the fate's to agree with him being older. So Nico's now fifteen years old. It's a bit confusing, but after a while it starts to make some sense." I answered.

He nodded slowly, as if trying to process the information. I heard the conch shell and got up, reaching my hand out to help him up. He smiled at me and grabbed my hand. He stood up, but kept holding on for a moment more. I smiled at him shyly and we went back to the Mess Hall.

Once we got there, I went back to my table when Nico came and sat with me again, just before Clarisse started.

Annabeth looked scandalized, " Wait! You aren't allowed to sit at others table!" she shouted indignantly at Nico.

I looked over at Chiron and gave him the doe eyes, " I suppose that while we're reading, the rules may be bended" he said, giving in.

I smiled smugly at Annabeth.

**"THREE OLD LADIES KNIT THE SOCKS OF DEATH"**, Clarisse read.

"Can I borrow a pair?" Nico asked jokingly

I glared at him.

**I was used to the occasional weird experience, but usually they were over quickly.**

**This twenty-four/seven hallucination was more than I could handle. For the rest of the school year, the entire campus seemed to be playing some kind of trick on me. The students acted as if they were completely and totally convinced that Mrs. Kerr—a perky blond woman whom I'd never seen in my life until she got on our bus at the end of the field trip—had been our pre-algebra teacher since Christmas. I'm getting kind of scared, I mean, is everyone being effected by amnesia?**

**Every so often I would spring a Mrs. Dodds reference on somebody, just to see if I could trip them up, but they would stare at me like I was psycho. It got so I almost believed them—Mrs. Dodds had never existed.**

**Almost.**

**But Grover couldn't fool me. I can see right through him, he can never successfully lie to me.**

"Dammit Grover, we have got to teach you how to lie." Travis said.

"And possibly steal" Connor added.

I gave him a steely look, " Don't you dare! You will not corrupt Grover!".

Grover chuckled at my unnecessary aggression.

**When I mentioned the name Dodds to him, he would hesitate, and then claim she didn't exist. But I knew he was lying.**

**Something was going on. Something had happened at the museum.**

**I didn't have much time to think about it during the days, but at night, visions of Mrs. Dodds with talons and leathery wings would wake me up in a cold sweat.**

"Eww! I'm glad I don't sweat! I glow." Silena stated

I rolled my eyes at her.

**The freak weather continued, which didn't help my mood. One night, a thunderstorm blew out the windows in my dorm room. A few days later, the biggest tornado ever spotted in the Hudson Valley touched down only fifty miles from Yancy Academy. One of the current events we studied in social studies class was the unusual number of small planes that had gone down in sudden squalls in the Atlantic that year.**

**I started feeling cranky and irritable most of the time. Grover keeps asking if it's my time of the month, I keep slapping him.**

Grover glowered at me, "My cheek still hurts" he stated, annoyed.

I grinned at him sweetly.

**My grades slipped from D's to F's. Not surprised though, I haven't been doing my homework. I keep feeling sick to my stomach.**

Nico looked at me worried, " You were fine, right?" he asked.

I gave him a small smile.

**I got into more fights with Nancy Bobofit and her friends. I was sent out into the hallway in almost every class.**

"Yes! I'm not the only one!" Malcolm shouted with glee.

Travis looked at him in shock, " Aren't you suppose to be a child of Athena?".

Malcolm blushed brightly.

**Finally, when our English teacher, Mr. Nicoll, asked me for the millionth time why I was too lazy to study for spelling tests, I snapped. I called him an old drunkard. I wasn't even sure why I said it. I possibly going to be expelled now, especially after this. But after seeing his expression, I couldn't bring myself to care.**

**The headmaster sent my mom a letter the following week, making it official: I would not be invited back next year to Yancy Academy.**

**Fine, I told myself. Just fine.**

**I was homesick.**

**I wanted to be with my mom in our little apartment on the Upper East Side, even if I had to go to public school and put up with my obnoxious stepfather and his stupid poker parties. Not sure why mom married him, he smells really bad, he doesn't work and he always demands things from her. That asshole.**

Nico cackled, " Language Annie!" he taunted.

I stuck my tongue out at him and went to sit beside Malcolm.

Nico pouted and folded his arms, looking like a kid about to throw a tantrum.

**And yet... there were things I'd miss at Yancy. The view of the woods outside my dorm window, the Hudson River in the distance, the smell of pine trees. I'd miss Grover, who'd been a good friend, even if he was a little strange.**

We all let out a small laugh.

**I worried how he'd survive next year without me.**

**I'd miss Latin class, too—Mr. Brunner's crazy tournament days and his faith that I could do well.**

Chiron smiled at me.

**As exam week got closer, Latin was the only test I studied for. It's not much different than every other test.**

Annabeth looked at me disapprovingly.

**I hadn't forgotten what Mr. Brunner had told me about this subject being life-and-death for me. I wasn't sure why, but I'd started to believe him.**

"You better have." Malcolm mumbled, " I'd rather you not die, don't wanna waste such a pretty face, do we?"

I blushed so brightly, I must have looked like a radish.

**The evening before my final, I got so frustrated I threw the Cambridge Guide to Greek Mythology across my dorm room. Words had started swimming off the page, circling my head, the letters doing one-eighties as if they were riding skateboards. There was no way I was going to remember the difference between Chiron and Charon, or Polydictes and Polydeuces. And conjugating those Latin verbs? Forget it. But I don't really give a damn. It's not like I'm ever coming back here anyways. **

"Its simple if you just try a little." Will Solace said

"What, are you a teacher now?" Conner said.

He glared fiercely at him, making Connor cower in his seat.

**I paced the room, feeling like ants were crawling around inside my shirt.**

**I remembered Mr. Brunner's serious expression, his thousand-year-old eyes. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson.**

**I took a deep breath. I picked up the mythology book.**

**I'd never asked a teacher for help before.**

"And you wonder why you fail." Clarisse said.

I stuck my tongue out at her.

**Maybe if I talked to Mr. Brunner, he could give me some pointers. At least I could apologize for the big fat F I was about to score on his exam. I didn't want to leave Yancy Academy with him thinking I hadn't tried.**

Chiron smiled at me.

**I walked downstairs to the faculty offices. Most of them were dark and empty, but Mr. Brunner's door was open, light from his window stretching across the hallway floor.**

**I was three steps from the door handle when I heard voices inside the office. Mr. Brunner asked a question. A voice that was definitely Grover's said,**

**"... worried about Persephany, sir."**

**I froze. My eye twitched slightly at hearing my real name.**

**I'm not usually an eavesdropper, but I dare you to try not listening if you hear your best friend talking about you to an adult.**

**I inched closer.**

**"... alone this summer," Grover was saying. "I mean, a Kindly One in the school! Now that we know for sure, and they know too—"**

**"We would only make matters worse by rushing her," Mr. Brunner said. "We need the girl to mature more."**

**"Percy? Mature more? She's the most mature 12 year old I've ever met! The thing I'm worried about is having her hear about all of this. She may not believe us and the summer solstice dead line— "**

"Annie? My Annie? The Annie that's here? Mature? What Annie do you know?" Nico exclaimed, quite confused.

Silena giggled,"Your Annie?" she asked, smiling.

Nico's face turned red, "Y-You Kn-now. M-my F-friend Annie" he stammered.

My cheeks grew hot and I couldn't look anyone in the eyes.

**"Will have to be resolved without her, Grover. Let her enjoy her ignorance while she still can."**

**"Sir, she saw her... ."**

**"Her imagination," Mr. Brunner insisted. "The Mist over the students and staff will be enough to convince her of that."**

**"Sir, I ... I can't fail in my duties again." Grover's voice was choked with emotion. "You know what that would mean."**

"Grover, it wasn't your fault, Thalia doesn't blame you" I smiled at him softly.

"Thanks Percy" Grover grinned at me.

**"You haven't failed, Grover," Mr. Brunner said kindly. "I should have seen her for what she was. Now let's just worry about keeping Persephany alive until next fall—"**

**The mythology book dropped out of my hand and hit the floor with a thud.**

**Mr. Brunner went silent.**

**My heart hammering, I picked up the book and backed down the hall.**

**A shadow slid across the lighted glass of Brunner's office door, the shadow of something much taller than my wheelchair-bound teacher, holding something that looked suspiciously like an archer's bow.**

"Why were you in horse form?" Katie asked.

"Can't fight well in a wheelchair" Chiron said.

**I opened the nearest door and slipped inside.**

**A few seconds later I heard a slow clop-clop-clop, like muffled wood blocks, then a sound like an animal snuffling right outside my door. A large, dark shape paused in front of the glass, and then moved on.**

**A bead of sweat trickled down my neck.**

**Somewhere in the hallway, Mr. Brunner spoke. "Nothing," he murmured. "My nerves haven't been right since the winter solstice."**

**"Mine neither," Grover said. "But I could have sworn ..."**

**"Go back to the dorm," Mr. Brunner told him. "You've got a long day of exams tomorrow."**

**"Don't remind me."**

Grover shuddered," The one thing I hated most about constant middle school, exams!"

I laughed loudly, poor Grover.

**The lights went out in Mr. Brunner's office.**

**I waited in the dark for what seemed like forever.**

**Finally, I slipped out into the hallway and made my way back up to Grover's dorm.**

**Grover was lying on his bed, studying his Latin exam notes like he'd been there all night.**

**"Hey," he said, bleary-eyed. "You going to be ready for this test?"**

**I didn't answer.**

**"You look awful." He frowned. "Is everything okay?"**

**"Just... tired. G'night"**

" You should of told me about what you heard earlier" Grover told me.

"Pleasant conversation that would be. Hey Grover, guess what? I heard you and Mr. Brunner talking about me like I was about to die. I also saw a horse and weapons!" I said sarcastically.

Grover rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly.

**I turned so he couldn't read my expression, and left the room to get ready for bed.**

**I didn't understand what I'd heard downstairs. I wanted to believe I'd imagined the whole thing.**

**But one thing was clear: Grover and Mr. Brunner were talking about me behind my back. They thought I was in some kind of danger.**

**The next afternoon, as I was leaving the three-hour Latin exam, my eyes swimming with all the Greek and Roman names I'd misspelled, Mr. Brunner called me back inside.**

**For a moment, I was worried he'd found out about my eavesdropping the night before, but that didn't seem to be the problem.**

**"Persephany," he said. "Don't be discouraged about leaving Yancy. It's ... it's for the best."**

**His tone was kind, but the words still embarrassed me. Even though he was speaking quietly, the other kids finishing the test could hear. Nancy Bobofit smirked at me and made sarcastic little kissing motions with her lips. I flipped her off.**

Malcolm chuckled, " Ohhhhh, feisty" he winked at me.

I bit my lip and blushed.

**I mumbled, "Okay, sir."**

**"I mean ..." Mr. Brunner wheeled his chair back and forth, like he wasn't sure what to say. "This isn't the right place for you. It was only a matter of time."**

"That's not a good thing to say." Will said. Chiron just looked at the book.

**My eyes stung.**

**Here was my favorite teacher, in front of the class, telling me I couldn't handle it. After saying he believed in me all year, now he was telling me I was destined to get kicked out.**

"That hurt" I thought.

**"Right," I said, trembling.**

**"No, no," Mr. Brunner said. "Oh, confound it all. What I'm trying to say ... you're not normal, Persephany. That's nothing to be—"**

**"Thanks," I blurted. "Thanks a lot, sir, for reminding me."**

**"Percy—"**

**But I was already gone.**

Chiron let out a small sigh.

**On the last day of the term, I shoved my clothes into my suitcase.**

**The other girls were joking around, talking about their vacation plans. One of them was going on a hiking trip to Switzerland. Another was cruising the Caribbean for a month. They were juvenile delinquents, like me, but they were rich juvenile delinquents. Their daddies were executives, or ambassadors, or celebrities. I was a nobody, from a family of nobodies.**

**They asked me what I'd be doing this summer and I told them I was going back to the city to see my mom.**

**What I didn't tell them was that I'd be spending the summer worrying about where I'd go to school in the fall.**

**"Oh," one of the girls said. "That's cool."**

**They went back to their conversation as if I'd never existed.**

"That's nice" Nico sneered.

I smiled at his care, " It doesn't matter Nico" I told him.

He looked put out but didn't say anything.

**The only person I dreaded saying good-bye to was Grover, but as it turned out, I didn't have to. He'd booked a ticket to Manhattan on the same Greyhound as I had,**

"How convenient." Conner said.

Chiron chuckled.

**so there we were, together again, heading into the city.**

**During the whole bus ride, Grover kept glancing nervously down the aisle, watching the other passengers. It occurred to me that he'd always acted nervous and fidgety when we left Yancy, as if he expected something bad to happen.**

**Before, I'd always assumed he was worried about getting teased. But there was nobody to tease him on the Greyhound.**

**Finally I couldn't stand it anymore.**

**I said, "Looking for Kindly Ones?"**

"Oh gods, that's gotta scare the crap out of him." Travis laughed.

**Grover nearly jumped out of his seat. "Wha—what do you mean?"**

**I confessed about eavesdropping on him and Mr. Brunner the night before the exam.**

**Grover's eye twitched. "How much did you hear?"**

**"Oh not that much. Just a bit about a Kindly One, or Fury. And something about the summer solstice?"**

**He winced. "Look, Percy ... I was just worried for you, see? I mean, hallucinating about demon math teachers …"**

**"Grover—"**

**"And I was telling Mr. Brunner that maybe you were overstressed or something, because there was no such person as Mrs. Dodds, and ..."**

**"Grover, you're a really, really bad liar."**

Connor gasped loudly, "Your covers been blown. Run!" he shouted dramatically.

Nico looked at me questionably, "Don't look at me, I'm just friends with him" I said shrugging my shoulders.

**His ears turned pink.**

**From his shirt pocket, he fished out a grubby business card. "Just take this, okay? In case you need me this summer.**

**The card was in fancy script, which was murder on my dyslexic eyes, but I finally made out something like:**

**Grover Underwood**

**Keeper**

**Half-Blood Hill**

**Long Island, New York**

**(800) 009-0009**

**"He should have a card in Greek." Katie said**

**"What's Half—"**

**"Don't say it aloud!" he yelped. "That's my, um ... summer address."**

**My heart sank. So Grover won't be staying for the summer.**

**"Okay," I said glumly. "So, like, if I want to come visit you or your parents."**

**He nodded. "Or...or if you need me."**

**"For what?"**

"That's kinda harsh." Nico said

**It came out harsher than I meant it to.**

Everyone raised their eye brows at me, so I glared at them.

**Grover blushed right down to his Adam's apple. "Look, Percy, the truth is, I—I kind of have to protect you."**

**I stared at him.**

**All year long, I'd gotten in fights, keeping bullies away from him. I'd lost sleep worrying that he'd get beaten up next year without me. And here he was acting like he was the one who defended me.**

Grover pouted, "You make me sound like a wimp.

I giggled at his mock-upset look.

**"Grover," I said, "What exactly are you protecting me from?"**

**There was a huge grinding noise under our feet. Black smoke poured from the dashboard and the whole bus filled with a smell like rotten eggs.**

**The driver cursed and steered the Greyhound over to the side of the highway.**

**After a few minutes clanking around in the engine compartment, the driver announced that we'd all have to get off. Grover and I filed outside with everybody else.**

"This is not good." Malcolm said, nervously.

"No shit, Sherlock" Nico spat.

**We were on a stretch of country road—no place you'd notice if you didn't break down there. On our side of the highway was nothing but maple trees and litter from passing cars. On the other side, across four lanes of asphalt shimmering with afternoon heat, was an old-fashioned fruit stand.**

**The color drained from my face. I remembered their old and wrinkled faces, it gave me nightmares.**

**The stuff on sale looked really good: heaping boxes of blood red cherries and apples, walnuts and apricots, jugs of cider in a claw-foot tub full of ice. There were no customers, just three old ladies sitting in rocking chairs in the shade of a maple tree, knitting the biggest pair of socks I'd ever seen.**

"Now do you want a pair?" I asked. Nico shook his head, eyes wide.

**I mean these socks were the size of sweaters, but they were clearly socks... I think. The lady on the right knitted one of them. The lady on the left knitted the other. The lady in the middle held an enormous basket of electric-blue yarn.**

**All three women looked ancient, with pale faces wrinkled like fruit leather, silver hair tied back in white bandannas, bony arms sticking out of bleached cotton dresses.**

**The weirdest thing was, they seemed to be looking right at me.**

**I looked over at Grover to say something about this and saw that the blood had drained from his face. His nose was twitching.**

**"Grover?" I said. "Hey, man—"**

**"Tell me they're not looking at you. They are, aren't they?"**

**"Yeah. Weird, huh? You think those socks would fit me?"**

**"Not funny, Percy. Not funny at all."**

**The old lady in the middle took out a huge pair of scissors—gold and silver, long-bladed, like shears. I heard Grover catch his breath.**

"This is really, really not good" Malcolm said wrapping his arms around me, as if trying to protect me from my past.

I smiled at him slightly.

**"We're getting on the bus," he told me. "Come on."**

**"What?" I said. "It's like thousands of degrees in there."**

**"Come on!'" He pried open the door and climbed inside, but I stayed back, not wishing to be fried to a crisp from the heat in there.**

**Across the road, the old ladies were still watching me. The middle one cut the yarn, and I swear I could hear that snip across four lanes of traffic.**

We all flinched.

**Her two friends balled up the electric-blue socks, leaving me wondering who they could possibly be for—Sasquatch or Godzilla.**

**At the rear of the bus, the driver wrenched a big chunk of smoking metal out of the engine compartment. The bus shuddered, and the engine roared back to life.**

**The passengers cheered.**

**"Damn right!" yelled the driver. He slapped the bus with his hat. "Everybody back on board!"**

**Once we got going, I started feeling feverish, as if I'd caught the flu.**

**Grover didn't look much better. He was shivering and his teeth were chattering.**

**"Grover?"**

**"Yeah?"**

**"What are you not telling me?"**

**He dabbed his forehead with his shirt sleeve. "Percy, what did you see back at the fruit stand?"**

**"You mean the old ladies? What is it about them? They're not like ... Mrs. Dodds, are they?"**

"In some ways, their much worse" Nico said, looking at me in Malcolm's arms, seeming almost sad.

**His expression was hard to read, but I got the feeling that the fruit-stand ladies were something much, much worse than Mrs. Dodds. He said, "Just tell me what you saw."**

**"The middle one took out her scissors, and she cut the yarn."**

**He closed his eyes and made a gesture with his fingers that might've been crossing himself, but it wasn't. It was something else, something almost—older, more powerful.**

"That's a really good observation" Chiron said, looking at me proudly.

**He said, "You saw her snip the cord."**

**"Yeah. So?" But even as I said it, I knew it was a big deal.**

**"This is not happening," Grover mumbled. He started chewing at his thumb. "I don't want this to be like the last time."**

**"What last time?"**

**"Always sixth grade. They never get past sixth."**

Grover flinched, remembering the accident with Thalia.

**"Grover," I said, because he was really starting to scare me. "What are you talking about?"**

**"Let me walk you home from the bus station. Promise me."**

**This seemed like a strange request to me, but I promised he could.**

**"Is this like a superstition or something?" I asked.**

**No answer.**

**"Grover—that snipping of the yarn. Does that mean somebody is going to die?"**

We all flinched again.

**He looked at me mournfully, like he was already picking the kind of flowers I'd like best on my coffin.**

"She likes Lilies" Nico informed everyone.

Silena raised her eyes at him and chuckled.

"By the way, we're done" Clarisse announced.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N; So I decided to update earlier then planned, Go Me! Lotsa love to everyone who added/favorited/reviewed my story. If I could, I would hug you all! Someone asked if this would be a Malcolm/Percy, sorry to dissapoint but its gonna be a Nico/Percy. She has a bit of a crush on both, but closer to the end of this story,. The real caracter setting will start. Enough of my rambling, let's begin.

Disclaimer: I forgot to do this before, don't kill me! I don't own Percy Jackson and I never will. No matter how much I ask Santa for it.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXO

" I'll read" Drew volunteered

**"GROVER UNEXPECTEDLY LOSES HIS PANTS".**

" Why do all the chapters have weird titles?" Conner asked.

Malcolm grinned at me, " It's because its Percy's mind" he snickered.

I stuck my tongue out at him and he chuckled.

**Confession time: I ditched Grover as soon as we got to the bus terminal.**

"That's not smart." Nico said.

I pouted.

**I know, I know. It was rude. But Grover was freaking me out, looking at me like I was a dead chick, muttering "Why does this always happen?" and "Why does it always have to he sixth grade?"**

Grover cringed at the thought of Thalia.

I looked at him sympathetically.

**Whenever he got upset, Grover's bladder acted up, so I wasn't surprised when, as soon as we got off the bus, he made me promise to wait for him, then made a beeline for the restroom. Instead of waiting, I got my suitcase, slipped outside, and caught the first taxi uptown. "East One-hundred-and-fourth and First," I told the driver. A word about my mother, before you meet her. Her name is Sally Jackson and she's the best person in the world, which just proves my theory that the best people have the worst luck.**

I frown, remembering my mother's hard time in life. Nico put his arm around me, in effort to comfort me.

**Her own parents died in a plane crash when she was five, and she was raised by an uncle who didn't care much about her. She wanted to be a novelist, so she spent high school working to save enough money for a college with a good creative-writing program. Then her uncle got cancer, and she had to quit school her senior year to take care of him. After he died, she was left with no money, no family, and no diploma. The only good break she ever got was meeting my dad.**

Annabeth smiled.

**I don't have any memories of him, just this sort of warm glow, maybe the barest trace of his smile. My mom doesn't like to talk about him because it makes her sad. She has no pictures. See, they weren't married. She told me he was rich and important, and their relationship was a secret. Then one day, he set sail across the Atlantic on some important journey, and he never came back. Lost at sea, my mom told me. Not dead. Lost at sea.** **She worked odd jobs, took night classes to get her high school diploma, and raised me on her own. She never complained or got mad. Not even once. But I knew I wasn't an easy kid.**

**Finally, she married Gabe Ugliano, who was nice the first thirty seconds we knew him, then showed his true colors as a world-class jackass. When I was young, I nick named him Smelly Gabe. I'm sorry, but it's the truth. The guy reeked like moldy garlic pizza wrapped in gym shorts.**

I sneered, I hate how Gabe treated my mom.

**Between the two of us, we made my mom's life pretty hard. The way Smelly Gabe treated her, the way he and I got along ... well, when I came home is a good example. I walked into our little apartment, hoping my mom would be home from work. Instead, Smelly Gabe was in the living room, playing poker with his buddies. The television blared ESPN. Chips and beer cans were strewn all over the carpet.**

**Hardly looking up, he said around his cigar, "So, you're home."**

**"Where's mom?"**

**"Working," he said. "You got any cash?"**

Nico growled, " Got any cash? That ass!"

I sighed, " It doesn't matter anymore Nico, he's out of my life for good".

Nico shook his head, " He still shouldn't treat you like that" he stated, leaving no room for argument.

**That was it. No Welcome back. Good to see you. How has your life been the last six months? Gabe had put on weight. He looked like a tuskless walrus in thrift-store clothes. He had about three hairs on his head, all combed over his bald scalp, as if that made him handsome or something.**

We all laughed at his stupid description.

**He managed the Electronics Mega-Mart in Queens, but he stayed home most of the time. I don't know why he hadn't been fired long before. He just kept on collecting paychecks, spending the money on cigars that made me nauseous, and on beer, of course. Always beer. Whenever I was home, he expected me to provide his gambling funds. He called that our "little secret." Meaning, if I told my mom, he would punch my lights out.**

Malcolm let a growl escape him, everyone else looked pissed off.

**"I don't have any cash," I told him. He raised a greasy eyebrow. Gabe could sniff out money like a bloodhound, which was surprising, since his own smell should've covered up everything else.**

Silena giggled

**"You took a taxi from the bus station," he said. "Probably paid with a twenty. Got six, seven bucks in change. Somebody expects to live under this roof, he ought to carry his own weight. Am I right, Eddie?" Eddie, the super of the apartment building, looked at me with a twinge of sympathy. "Come on, Gabe," he said. "The girl just got here." "Am I right?" Gabe repeated. Eddie scowled into his bowl of pretzels. The other two guys passed gas in harmony.**

" Eddie's always been decent to me" I said, smiling.

**"Fine," I said. I dug a wad of dollars out of my pocket and threw the money on the table. "I hope you lose." "Your report card came, know-it all!" he shouted after me. "I wouldn't act so snooty!" I slammed the door to my room, which really wasn't my room. During school months, it was Gabe's "study." He didn't study anything in there except old car magazines, but he loved shoving my stuff in the closet, leaving his muddy boots on my windowsill, and doing his best to make the place smell like his nasty cologne and cigars and stale beer.**

"Why would she marry him?" Will asked.

" He masked my Demi-god smell" I replied, tearing up at being the cause of my mother's misery.

**I dropped my suitcase on the bed. Home sweet home. Gabe's smell was almost worse than the nightmares about Mrs. Dodds, or the sound of that old fruit lady's shears snipping the yarn. But as soon as I thought that, my legs felt weak. I remembered Grover's look of panic—how he'd made me promise I wouldn't go home without him. A sudden chill rolled through me. I felt like someone—something—was looking for me right now, maybe pounding its way up the stairs, growing long, horrible talons.**

**Then I heard my mom's voice. "Percy?"**

**She opened the bedroom door, and my fears melted.**

**My eyes lit up in delight, " Mommy!" I shrieked and hugged her.**

Clarisse snickered, "Not so tough now huh?"

I glared at her fiercely. Why'd she have to be so bitchy?

**My mother can make me feel good just by walking into the room.**

Everyone smiled.

**Her eyes sparkle and change color in the light. Her smile is as warm as a quilt. She's got a few gray streaks mixed in with her long brown hair, but I could never think of her as old. When she looks at me, it's like she's seeing all the good things about me, none of the bad. I've never heard her raise her voice or say an unkind word to anyone, not even me or Gabe.**

**"Oh, Percy." She hugged me tight. "I can't believe it. You've grown since Christmas!"**

**Her red-white-and-blue Sweet on America uniform smelled like the best things in the world: chocolate, licorice, and all the other stuff she sold at the candy shop in Grand Central. She'd brought me a huge bag of "free samples," the way she always did when I came home. I'm glad she did, I adore candy.**

Grover shuddered, clearly remembering when I went on a sugar high. I snickered.

**We sat together on the edge of the bed. While I attacked the blueberry sour strings, she ran her hand through my hair and demanded to know everything I hadn't put in my letters. She didn't mention anything about my getting expelled. She didn't seem to care about that. But was I okay? Was her little girl doing all right? I told her she was smothering me, and to lay off and all that, but secretly, I was really, really glad to see her.**

**From the other room, Gabe yelled, "Hey, Sally—how about some bean dip, huh?"**

**I gritted my teeth, wishing to be able to go slap him.** **My mom is the nicest lady in the world. She should've been married to a millionaire, not to some jerk like Gabe.**

Annabeth smiled at me sadly.

**For her sake, I tried to sound upbeat about my last days at Yancy Academy. I told her I wasn't too down about the expulsion. I'd lasted almost the whole year this time. I'd made some new friends. I'd done pretty well in Latin. And honestly, the fights hadn't been as bad as the headmaster said. I liked Yancy Academy. I really did. I put such a good spin on the year, I almost convinced myself.**

**I started choking up, thinking about Grover and Mr. Brunner. Even Nancy Bobofit suddenly didn't seem so bad... Nahh, that's going to far.**

Grover laughed, he seemed to agree with me.

**Until that trip to the museum ...**

**"What?" my mom asked. Her eyes tugged at my conscience, as if trying to pull out the secrets. "Did something scare you?"**

**"No, Mother."**

**I felt bad lying. I wanted to tell her about Mrs. Dodds and the three old ladies with the yarn, but I thought it would sound stupid and I didn't want to scare her. She pursed her lips. She knew I was holding back, but she didn't push me.**

**"I have a surprise for you," she said. "We're going to the beach."**

**My eyes widened. "Montauk?"**

**"Three nights—same cabin."**

**"When?"**

**She smiled. "As soon as I get changed."**

**I couldn't believe it. My mom and I hadn't been to Montauk the last two summers, because Gabe said there wasn't enough money.**

"Yeah right." Travis scoffed.

**Gabe appeared in the doorway and growled, "Bean dip, Sally? Didn't you hear me?"**

**I wanted to punch him, or kick him. Any works really.** **But I met my mom's eyes and I understood she was offering me a deal: be nice to Gabe for a little while. Just until she was ready to leave for Montauk. Then we would get out of here.**

**"I was on my way, honey," she told Gabe. "We were just talking about the trip."**

**Gabe's eyes got small. "The trip? You mean you were serious about that?"**

**"I knew it," I muttered. "He won't let us go."**

**"Of course he will," my mom said evenly. "Your step father is just worried about money. That's all. Besides," she added, "Gabriel won't have to settle for bean dip. I'll make him enough seven-layer dip for the whole weekend. Guacamole. Sour cream. The works."**

"That's to much for a three day vacation." Connor said. The others nodded in agreement.

**Gabe softened a bit. "So this money for your trip ... it comes out of your clothes budget, right?"**

Silena gave the book a horrified look.

**"Yes, honey," my mother said.**

**"And you won't take my car anywhere but there and back."**

**"We'll be very careful."**

**Gabe scratched his double chin. "Maybe if you hurry with that seven-layer dip ... And maybe if the girl apologizes for interrupting my poker game."**

**Maybe if I kick you in your soft spot, I thought. And make you sing soprano for a week.**

Nico chuckled, " Temper, temper!"

I shot him a slightly amused smile.

**But my mom's eyes warned me not to make him mad.**

**Why did she put up with this guy? I wanted to scream. Why did she care what he thought?**

**"I'm sorry," I muttered. "I'm really sorry I interrupted your incredibly important poker game. Please go back to it right now."**

**Gabe's eyes narrowed. His tiny brain was probably trying to detect sarcasm in my statement.**

**"By the time we come back, he'll still be trying to think of it." I thought, a small smile sliding onto my face.***

**"Yeah, whatever," he decided.**

**He went back to his game.**

Katie snarled, " Probably didn't have the brain cells to figure out a witty comment" she said.

My eyes went wide, Katie was always a sweet tempered girl. This book must be changing people.

**"Thank you, Percy," my mom said. "Once we get to Montauk, we'll talk more about... whatever you've forgotten to tell me, okay?"**

**For a moment, I thought I saw anxiety in her eyes—the same fear I'd seen in Grover during the bus ride—as if my mom too felt an odd chill in the air. But then her smile returned, and I figured I must have been mistaken. She ruffled my hair and went to make Gabe his seven-layer dip. An hour later we were ready to leave. Gabe took a break from his poker game long enough to watch me lug my mom's bags to the car. He kept griping and groaning about losing her cooking—and more important, his '78 Camaro—for the whole weekend.**

**"Not a scratch on this car, know-it all," he warned me as I loaded the last bag. "Not one little scratch."**

" He's a serious idiot! Why would you be driving?" Nico nearly shouted.

**Like I'd be the one driving. I was twelve. But that didn't matter to Gabe. If a seagull so much as pooped on his paint job, he'd find a way to blame me.**

Travis and Conner cracked up at Nico and I having the same thought. I rolled my eyes at them.

**Watching him lumber back toward the apartment building, I got so mad I did something I can't explain. As Gabe reached the doorway, I made the hand gesture I'd seen Grover make on the bus, a sort of warding-off-evil gesture, a clawed hand over my heart, then a shoving movement toward Gabe. The screen door slammed shut so hard it whacked him in the butt and sent him flying up the stair case as if he'd been shot from a cannon. Maybe it was just the wind, or some freak accident with the hinges, but I didn't stay long enough to find out. _Opps_**

Grover snickered at me, " Classic Percy" he thought.

**I got in the Camaro and told my mom to step on it.**

**Our rental cabin was on the south shore, way out at the tip of Long Island. It was a little pastel box with faded curtains, half sunken into the dunes. There was always sand in the sheets and spiders in the cabinets,**

The whole Athena cabin shuddered.

**and most of the time the sea was too cold to swim in.**

**I adored the place.**

**We'd been going there since I was a baby. My mom had been going even longer. She never exactly said, but I knew why the beach was special to her. It was the place where she'd met my dad.**

**As we got closer to Montauk, she seemed to grow younger, years of worry and work disappearing from her face. Her eyes turned the color of the got there at sunset, opened all the cabin's windows, and went through our usual cleaning routine. We walked on the beach, fed blue corn chips to the seagulls, and munched on blue jelly beans, blue saltwater taffy, and all the other free samples my mom had brought from work.**

"What's up with the blue food?" Travis asked.

**I guess I should explain the blue food.**

"Thank you!" Travis exclaimed.

**See, Gabe had once told my mom there was no such thing. They had this fight, which seemed like a really small thing at the time. But ever since, my mom went out of her way to eat blue. She baked blue birthday cakes. She mixed blueberry smoothies. She bought blue-corn tortilla chips and brought home blue candy from the shop. This—along with keeping her maiden name, Jackson, rather than calling herself Mrs. Ugliano—was proof that she wasn't totally suckered by Gabe. She did have a rebellious streak, like me.**

**When it got dark, we made a fire. We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. Mom told me stories about when she was a kid, back before her parents died in the plane crash. She told me about the books she wanted to write someday, when she had enough money to quit the candy shop.**

I smiled sadly, my mother was always hopeful. I love her so much.

**Eventually, I got up the nerve to ask about what was always on my mind whenever we came to Montauk—my father. Mom's eyes went all misty. I figured she would tell me the same things she always did, but I never got tired of hearing them.**

**"He was kind, Percy," she said. "Tall, handsome, and powerful. But gentle, too. You have his black hair, you know, and his green eyes."**

**Mom fished a blue jelly bean out of her candy bag. "I wish he could see you, Percy. He would be so proud."**

**I wondered how she could say that. What was so great about me? A dyslexic, hyperactive girl with a D+ report card, kicked out of school for the sixth time in six years.**

Nico looked at me sadly, "Don't psych yourself out Annie. You're still the greatest person I know" he said, trying to comfort me.

I smiled at him, he was such a good friend.

**"How old was I?" I asked. "I mean ... when he left?"**

**She watched the flames. "He was only with me for one summer, Percy. Right here at this beach. This cabin."**

**"But... he knew me as a baby."**

**"No, honey. He knew I was expecting a baby, but he never saw you. He had to leave before you were born."**

**I tried to square that with the fact that I seemed to remember ... something about my father. A warm glow. A smile. I had always assumed he knew me as a baby. My mom had never said it outright, but still, I'd felt it must be true. Now, to be told that he'd never even seen me...**

**I felt angry at my father. Maybe it was stupid, but I resented him for going on that ocean voyage, for not having the guts to marry my mom. He'd left us, and now we were stuck with Smelly Gabe.**

Thunder boomed above us, but I wasn't going to say sorry for something I thought in the past.

**"Are you going to send me away again?" I asked her. "To another boarding school?"**

**She pulled a marshmallow from the fire.**

**"I don't know, honey." Her voice was heavy. "I think ... I think we'll have to do something."**

**"Because you don't want me around?"**

**I regretted the words as soon as they were out.**

**My mom's eyes welled with tears. She took my hand, squeezed it tight. "Oh, Percy, no. I—I have to, honey. For your own good. I have to send you away."**

**I felt ashamed of myself, how could I think of that about my mom. But something triggered in my mind, her words reminded me of what Mr. Brunner had said—that it was best for me to leave Yancy.**

**"Because I'm not normal," I said.**

Castor smiled, " Normalcy is overrated" he stated.

I grinned at him, " It's a good thing I'm far from normal, huh?"

**"You say that as if it's a bad thing, Percy. But you don't realize how important you are. I thought Yancy Academy would be far enough away. I thought you'd finally be safe."**

**"Safe from what?"**

"Monsters." Conner supplied.

**She met my eyes, and a flood of memories came back to me—all the weird, scary things that had ever happened to me, some of which I'd tried to forget.**

**During third grade, a man in a black trench coat had stalked me on the playground. When the teachers threatened to call the police, he went away growling, but no one believed me when I told them that under his broad-brimmed hat, the man only had one eye, right in the middle of his head. Before that—a really early memory. I was in preschool, and a teacher accidentally put me down for a nap in a cot that a snake had slithered into. My mom screamed when she came to pick me up and found me playing with a limp, scaly rope I'd somehow managed to strangle to death with my meaty toddler hands.**

I smirked, that snake shouldn't have messed with me to begin with.

**In every single school, something creepy had happened, something unsafe, and I was forced to move.**

**I knew I should tell my mom about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs. Dodds at the art museum, about my weird hallucination that I had sliced my math teacher into dust with a sword. But I couldn't make myself tell her. I had a strange feeling the news would end our trip to Montauk, and I didn't want that.**

**"I've tried to keep you as close to me as I could," my mom said. "They told me that was a mistake. But there's only one other option, sweetheart—the place your father wanted to send you. And I just... I just can't stand to do it."**

**"My father wanted me to go to a special school?"**

**"Not a school," she said softly. "A summer camp."**

"I was so confused" I giggled.

**My head was spinning. Why would my dad—who hadn't even stayed around long enough to see me born— talk to my mom about a summer camp? And if it was so important, why hadn't she ever mentioned it before?**

**"I'm sorry, Sephy," she said, **

" Sephy?" Malcolm asked with a raised eyebrow.

" A nickname I've had since I was three" I explained, smiling at the memory.

**seeing the look in my eyes. "But I can't talk about it. I—I couldn't send you to that place. It might mean saying good-bye to you for good."**

**"For good? But if it's only a summer camp ..."**

**She turned toward the fire, and I knew from her expression that if I asked her any more questions she would start to cry.**

**That night I had a vivid dream.**

Nico groaned, " I hate Demi-god dreams, they're so _annoying_!" He exclaimed.

**It was storming on the beach, and two beautiful animals, a white horse and a golden eagle, were trying to kill each other at the edge of the surf.**

"Oh no" Annabeth muttered.

**The eagle swooped down and slashed the horse's muzzle with its huge talons. The horse reared up and kicked at the eagles wings. As they fought, the ground rumbled, and a monstrous voice chuckled somewhere beneath the earth, goading the animals to fight harder.**

**I ran toward them, knowing I had to stop them from killing each other, but I was running in slow motion. I knew I would be too late. I saw the eagle dive down, its beak aimed at the horse's wide eyes, and I screamed, No!**

**I woke with a start.**

**Outside, it really was storming, the kind of storm that cracks trees and blows down houses. There was no horse or eagle on the beach, just lightning making false daylight, and twenty-foot waves pounding the dunes like artillery.**

**With the next thunder clap, my mom woke. She sat up, eyes wide, and said, "Hurricane."**

" I love hurricanes" I thought to myself, wistfully.

**I knew that was crazy. Long Island never sees hurricanes this early in the summer. But the ocean seemed to have forgotten. Over the roar of the wind, I heard a distant bellow, an angry, tortured sound that made my hair stand on end.**

**Then a much closer noise, like mallets in the sand. A desperate voice—someone yelling, pounding on our cabin door.**

**My mother sprang out of bed in her nightgown and threw open the lock.**

**Grover stood framed in the doorway against a backdrop of pouring rain. But he wasn't... he wasn't exactly Grover.**

"Oh, I get it now." Will said.

"Get what?" Travis asked.

"Why the chapter is called 'GROVER UNEXPECTEDLY LOSES HIS PANTS'." Will replied.

"I still don't get it." He said

"Idiot." I muttered.

**"Searching all night," he gasped. "What were you thinking?"**

**My mother looked at me in terror—not scared of Grover, but of why he'd come.**

**"Percy," she said, shouting to be heard over the rain. "What happened at school? What didn't you tell me?"**

**I was frozen, looking at Grover. I couldn't understand what I was seeing.**

**"O Zeu kai alloi theoi!" he yelled. "It's right behind me! Didn't you tell her?"**

"Ohhhhhhnh, Grover's _upset_." Conner said.

**I was too shocked to register that he'd just cursed in Ancient Greek, and I'd understood him perfectly. I was too shocked to wonder how Grover had gotten here by himself in the middle of the night. Because Grover didn't have his pants on—**

"I still have nightmares about that" I shuddered, teasing Grover.

He mock glared at me.

**and where his legs should be ... where his legs should be ...**

" Were chicken legs!" Connor squealed in delight.

I looked at his brother in confusion, " This book changes people" he stated solemnly.

**My mom looked at me sternly and talked in a tone she'd never used before: "Persephany. Tell me now!"**

**I stammered something about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs. Dodds, and my mom stared at me, her face deathly pale in the flashes of lightning.**

**She grabbed her purse, tossed me my rain jacket, and said, "Get to the car. Both of you. Go!"**

**Grover ran for the Camaro—but he wasn't running, exactly. He was trotting, shaking his shaggy hind quarters, and suddenly his story about a muscular disorder in his legs made sense to me. I understood how he could run so fast and still limp when he walked.**

"That was a strange sight" I mumbled.

Nico, being the only one that could here me, chuckled.

**Because where his feet should be, there were no feet. There were cloven hooves.**

Drew threw down the book, " Done" she stated, quite unnecessarily.


	4. Chapter 4

Mwah! Hugs and kisses to reviewers, people who added or favorited or even just read this story. Sorry if there is any spelling mistakes, don't have a beta yet and I'm doing this on my Playbook. I may not update as quick as I usually do for the next lil' while, cause I'm working on another story. Anyways, let team story begin!

Disclaimer: Must they rub in that I don't own Percy Jackson by making me write this?

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

"Soo" I said after a while of waiting, or in the Athena's cabin's case, glaring at Drew for throwing the book. " Who's reading next? I asked.

Nico sighed and gestured to himself.

My eyes widened, " I didn't know you could read" I exclaimed, shocked.

He glared at me and I cowered back in my seat. Nico scared me sometimes.

**"MY MOTHER TEACHES ME BULLFIGHTING" he read.**

"That doesn't sound too good." Travis said.

His brother rolled his eyes at him.

**We tore through the night along dark country roads. Wind slammed against the Camaro. Rain lashed the wind shield. I didn't know how my mom could see anything, but she kept her foot on the gas. For some reason, I can see my mom in a car chase. She just seems that bad ass.**

**Every time there was a flash of lightning, I looked at Grover sitting next to me in the back seat and I wondered if I'd gone insane, or if he was wearing some kind of shag-carpet pants.**

I sighed. How could I still let the mist affect me?

**But, no, the smell was one I remembered from kindergarten field trips to the petting zoo— lanolin, like from wool. The smell of a wet barnyard animal.**

Grover looked affronted while everyone laughed.

**All I could think to say was, "So, you and my mom... you guys know each other?"**

**Grover's eyes flitted to the rear view mirror, though there were no cars behind us. "Not exactly," he said. "I mean, we've never met in person. But she knew I was watching you."**

**"Watching me?"**

**"Keeping tabs on you. Making sure you were okay. But I wasn't faking being your friend," he added hastily. "I am your friend."**

**"Urn ... what are you, exactly?"**

**"That doesn't matter right now."**

**"It doesn't matter? From the waist down, my best friend is some type of donkey hybrid thing—"**

**Grover let out a sharp, throaty "Blaa-ha-ha!"**

**I'd heard him make that sound before, but I'd always assumed it was a nervous laugh. Now I realized it was more of an irritated bleat.**

**"Goat!" he cried.**

**"What?"**

**"I'm a goat from the waist down."**

"I thought it didn't matter." Travis stage whispered.

**"You just said it didn't matter."**

**"Blaa-ha-ha! There are satyrs who would trample you under hoof for such an insult!"**

**"Satyrs. You mean like ... Greek myths?"**

"They're not myths." Clarisse said, rolling her eyes.

**"Were those old ladies at the fruit stand a myth, Percy? Was Mrs. Dodds a myth?"**

**"So you admit there was a Mrs. Dodds!"**

**"Of course."**

**"Then why—"**

" To protect me, which I don't need" I replied, answering my own question.

" I'd rather he protect you, than you going in blind and dying" Nico whispered to me.

I sighed and snuggled into his side.

**"The less you knew, the fewer monsters you'd attract," Grover said, like that should be perfectly obvious. "We put Mist over the humans' eyes. We hoped you'd think the Kindly One was a hallucination. But it was no good. You started to realize who you are."**

**"Who I—wait a minute, what the hell do you mean?"**

**The weird bellowing noise rose up again somewhere behind us, closer than before. Whatever was chasing us was still on our trail.**

**"Sephy," my mom said, "there's too much to explain and not enough time. We have to get you to safety."**

**"Safety from what? Who's after me?"**

**"Oh, nobody much," Grover said, obviously still miffed about the donkey comment. "Just the Lord of the Dead and a few of his blood-thirstiest minions."**

"Oh gods, where' your tact Grover? ." Malcolm asked sarcastically.

Grover blushed.

**"Grover!"**

**"Sorry, Mrs. Jackson. Could you drive faster, please?"**

**I tried to wrap my mind around what was happening, but I couldn't do it. I knew this wasn't a dream. I had no imagination. I could never dream up something this weird.**

**My mom made a hard left. We swerved onto a narrower road, racing past darkened farmhouses and wooded hills and PICK YOUR OWN STRAWBERRIES signs on white picket fences.**

" I like strawberries" I mumbled to Nico.

He chuckled softly.

**"Where are we going?" I asked.**

**"The summer camp I told you about." My mother's voice was tight; she was trying for my sake not to be scared. "The place your father wanted to send you."**

**"You mean the place you didn't want me to go."**

**"Please, dear," my mother begged. "This is hard enough. Try to understand. You're in danger."**

**"Because some old ladies cut yarn."**

" Yarn my ass" Grover grumbled.

**"Those weren't old ladies," Grover said. "Those were the Fates. Do you know what it means—the fact they appeared in front of you? They only do that when you're about to ... when someone's about to die."**

"Did anyone else notice that Grover said you?" Travis said.

"Yes, its kinda creepy when your best friend talks about your death" I replied.

**"Whoa. You said 'you.'"**

"Percy noticed." Conner said.

" How observant" Annabeth said, rolling her eyes.

**"No I didn't. I said 'someone.'"**

**"You meant 'you.' As in me.**

**"I meant you, like 'someone.' Not you, you."**

**"Children!" my mom said.**

**Despite the situation, I giggled.**

Malcolm looked over at me in amusement, " Classic Annie" he said, smiling.

My smile slowly faded. It sounded different when he said it. When Nico called me Annie, it was more... Affectionate and sweet. I didn't like it when Malcolm called me that.

" Please don't call me Annie" I almost whispered.

He looked surprised but nodded.

Nico seemed suspiciously smug.

**She pulled the wheel hard to the right, and I got a glimpse of a figure she'd swerved to avoid—a dark fluttering shape now lost behind us in the storm.**

**"Holy crap! What was that?" I asked.**

**"We're almost there," my mother said, ignoring my question.**

**"Another mile. Please. Please. Please."**

**I didn't know where there was, but I found myself leaning forward in the car, anticipating, wanting us to arrive.**

" Of course! Camp's the best!" Connor shouted in delight.

I grinned at his childish ways.

**Outside, nothing but rain and darkness—the kind of empty countryside you get way out on the tip of Long Island. I thought about Mrs. Dodds and the moment when she'd changed into the thing with pointed teeth and leathery wings. My limbs went numb from delayed shock. She really hadn't been human. She'd meant to kill me. Though in retrospect it was kind of obvious.**

**Then I thought about Mr. Brunner ... and the sword he had thrown me. Before I could ask Grover about that, the hair rose on the back of my neck. There was a blinding flash, a jaw-rattling boom!, and our car exploded.**

"How the Hades did the freaking car explode?" Silena yelled.

(A/N: When I first read that I was so confused)

**I remember feeling weightless, like I was being crushed, fried, and hosed down all at the same time.**

**I peeled my forehead off the back of the driver's seat and said, "Ow."**

**"Percy!" my mom shouted.**

**"M'okay..."**

"Thank the gods" Nico muttered, hugging me even more to his side..

**I tried to shake off the daze. I wasn't dead. The car hadn't really exploded. We'd swerved into a ditch. Our driver's-side doors were wedged in the mud. The roof had cracked open like an eggshell and rain was pouring in.**

**Lightning. That was the only explanation. We'd been blasted right off the road. Next to me in the back seat was a big motionless lump. "Grover!" I was almost in tears, I couldn't lose Grover.**

"Awww!" Most of the girls cooed.

I crinkled my nose in annoyance.

**He was slumped over, blood trickling from the side of his mouth. I shook his furry hip, thinking, No! Even if you are half barnyard animal, you're my best friend and I don't want you to die!**

**Then he groaned "Food," and I knew there was hope.**

" Typical Grover" I giggled.

He smiled abashed.

**"Percy," my mother said, "we have to ..." Her voice faltered.**

**I looked back. In a flash of lightning, through the mud-spattered rear windshield, I saw a figure lumbering toward us on the shoulder of the road. The sight of it made my skin crawl. It was a dark silhouette of a huge guy, like a football player. He seemed to be holding a blanket over his head. His top half was bulky and fuzzy. His upraised hands made it look like he had horns.**

"Please for the love of the gods don't be the Minotaur" Silena whispered.

**I swallowed hard. "Who is—"**

**"Percy," my mother said, deadly serious. "Get out of the car."**

**My mother threw herself against the driver's-side door. It was jammed shut in the mud. I tried mine. Stuck too. I looked up desperately at the hole in the roof. It might've been an exit, but the edges were sizzling and smoking.**

**"Climb out the passenger's side!" my mother told me. "Percy—you have to run. Do you see that big tree?"**

I winced at the thought of poor Thalia.

**"What?"**

**Another flash of lightning, and through the smoking hole in the roof I saw the tree she meant: a huge, White House Christmas tree-sized pine at the crest of the nearest hill.**

**"That's the property line," my mom said. "Get over that hill and you'll see a big farmhouse down in the valley. Run and don't look back. Yell for help. Don't stop until you reach the door."**

**"Mommy, you're coming too."**

**Her face was pale, her eyes as sad as when she looked at the ocean.**

**"No!" I shouted. "You are coming with me. Help me carry Grover."**

Chiron smiled sadly.

**"Food!" Grover moaned, a little louder.**

**I gave him an annoyed sigh.**

**The man with the blanket on his head kept coming toward us, making his grunting, snorting noises. As he got closer, I realized he couldn't be holding a blanket over his head, because his hands—huge meaty hands—were swinging at his sides. There was no blanket. Meaning the bulky, fuzzy mass that was too big to be his head ... was his head. And the points that looked like horns …**

"Oh gods it is the Minotaur" Silena said, eyes wide.

**"He doesn't want us," my mother told me. "He wants you. Besides, I can't cross the property line."**

**The thought of having to leave a loved one behind possibly to their death killed me inside.**

**"But..."**

**"We don't have time, Percy. Go. Please."**

**I got mad, then—mad at my mother, at Grover the goat,**

**at the thing with horns that was lumbering toward us slowly and deliberately like, like a bull.**

**I climbed across Grover and pushed the door open into the rain. "We're going together. Come on, Mom."**

**"I told you—"**

**"Mother! I am not leaving you. Help me with Grover."**

I had tears in my eyes, knowing what was coming next.

**I didn't wait for her answer. I scrambled outside, dragging Grover from the car. He was surprisingly light, but I couldn't have carried him very far if my mom hadn't come to my aid.**

**Together, we draped Grover's arms over our shoulders and started stumbling uphill through wet waist-high grass.**

"Ugh, that sucks." Conner said.

"Shut up!" I yelled, the tension and suspense getting to me.

**Glancing back, I got my first clear look at the monster. He was seven feet tall, easy, his arms and legs like something from the cover of Muscle Man magazine—bulging biceps and triceps and a bunch of other 'ceps, all stuffed like baseballs under vein-webbed skin. He wore no clothes except under wear**

"Wh-What?" Travis stuttered while laughing. "What k-kinda monster w-wears underwear?" He was nearly rolling on the floor.

**I mean, bright white Fruit of the Looms—which would've looked funny,**

His brother joined him now in the laughter. Their faces were starting to get red, which was quite amusing.

**except that the top half of his body was so scary. Coarse brown hair started at about his belly button and got thicker as it reached his shoulders.**

**His neck was a mass of muscle and fur leading up to his enormous head, which had a snout as long as my arm, snotty nostrils with a gleaming brass ring, cruel black eyes, and horns—enormous black-and-white horns with points you just couldn't get from an electric sharpener.**

**I recognized the monster, all right. He had been in one of the first stories Mr. Brunner told us. But he couldn't be real. Or at least shouldn't.**

"Yes it could." Annabeth said in a sing-song voice.

**I blinked the rain out of my eyes. "That's—"**

**"Pasiphae's son," my mother said.**

"Wow, she really knows a lot." Katie said.

**"I wish I'd known how badly they want to kill you."**

**"But he's the Min—"**

"Don't say his name!" Will yelled loudly.

**"Don't say his name," she warned. "Names have power."**

Will looked down with a blush on his face.

**The pine tree was still way too far—a hundred yards uphill at least.**

**I glanced behind me again.**

**The bull-man hunched over our car, looking in the win dows—or not looking, exactly. More like snuffling, nuzzling. I wasn't sure why he bothered, since we were only about fifty feet away.**

**"Food?" Grover moaned.**

**"Shut Up!" I yelled at him. "Mom, what's he doing? Doesn't he see us?"**

" He's blind and can't hear" Annabeth said.

**"His sight and hearing are terrible," she said. "He goes by smell. But he'll figure out where we are soon enough."**

Annabeth blushed, " I guess you already knew" she mumbled.

**As if on cue, the bull-man bellowed in rage. He picked up Gabe's car by the torn roof, the chassis creaking and groaning. He raised the car over his head and threw it down the road. It slammed into the wet asphalt and skidded in a shower of sparks for about half a mile before coming to a stop. The gas tank exploded.**

"Oops" Nico said, snickering.

**Not a scratch, I remembered Gabe saying.**

**Oops.**

"Aww, you think like your girlfriend! How sweet!" Micheal Yew squealed, his voice sounding slightly sarcastic.

Nico and I started blushing like mad, " Girlfriend? I'm/ she's not my/his girlfriend!" We exclaimed at the same time.

Katie giggled, " Sure" she said, sounding very unconvinced.

**"Percy," my mom said. "When he sees us, he'll charge. Wait until the last second, then jump out of the way— directly sideways. He can't change directions very well once he's charging. Do you understand?"**

"That's a good strategy." Malcolm said

**"How do you know all this?"**

**"I've been worried about an attack for a long time. I should have expected this. I was selfish, keeping you near me."**

I sighed. I may not like it, but she is sort of right.

**"Keeping me near you? But—"**

**Another bellow of rage, and the bull-man started tromping uphill.**

**He'd smelled us. Probably Grover though, I smell good, like roses and strawberries.**

" You do smell like roses and strawberries. It's a nice smell" Nico said, mostly to himself. When he noticed me looking at him amused he blushed brightly.

I whispered in his ear, " It's my shampoo" I told him.

**The pine tree was only a few more yards, but the hill was getting steeper and slicker, and Grover wasn't getting any lighter. The bull-man closed in. Another few seconds and he'd be on top of us. My mother must've been exhausted, but she shouldered Grover. "Go, Sephy! Separate! Remember what I said."**

**I didn't want to split up, but I had the feeling she was right—it was our only chance. I sprinted to the left, turned, and saw the creature bearing down on me. His black eyes glowed with hate. He reeked like rotten meat.**

Annabeth, Silena, Katie and I wrinkled our noses.

**He lowered his head and charged, those razor-sharp horns aimed straight at my chest.**

**The fear in my stomach made me want to bolt, but that wouldn't work. I could never outrun this thing.**

**So I held my ground, and at the last moment, I jumped to the side.**

Nico sighed in relief.

**The bull-man stormed past like a freight train, then bellowed with frustration and turned, but not toward me this time, toward my mother, who was setting Grover down in the grass. _Shit!_**

**We'd reached the crest of the hill. Down the other side I could see a valley, just as my mother had said, and the lights of a farmhouse glowing yellow through the rain. But that was half a mile away. We'd never make it.**

" You should be more optimistic." Katie said.

I snorted.

**The bull-man grunted, pawing the ground. He kept eying my mother, who was now retreating slowly downhill, back toward the road, trying to lead the monster away from Grover.**

**"Run, Percy!" she told me. "I can't go any farther. Run!"**

**But I just stood there, frozen in fear, as the monster charged her. She tried to sidestep, as she'd told me to do, but the monster had learned his lesson. His hand shot out and grabbed her by the neck as she tried to get away. He lifted her as she struggled, kicking and pummeling the air.**

**"Mommy!"**

Tears were streaming down my face as sobs escaped my mouth. Nico squeezed me tighter and rubbed my back. Even Clarisse didn't have the heart to laugh at me.

**She caught my eyes, managed to choke out one last word: "Go!"**

**Then, with an angry roar, the monster closed his fists around my mother's neck, and she dissolved before my eyes, melting into light, a shimmering golden form, as if she were a holographic projection. A blinding flash, and she was simply ... gone.**

**"No!"**

**Anger replaced my fear. Newfound strength burned in my limbs****—****the same rush of energy I'd gotten when Mrs. Dodds grew talons.** **The bull-man bore down on Grover, who lay helpless in the grass. The monster hunched over, snuffling my best friend, as if he were about to lift Grover up and make him dissolve too.**

**I couldn't allow that.**

Grover smiled at me sadly.

**I stripped off my red rain jacket.**

**"Hey!" I screamed, waving the jacket, running to one side of the monster. "Hey, meat head! You jackass, you killed my mom!"**

**"Raaaarrrrr!" The monster turned toward me, shaking his meaty fists.**

**I had an idea—a stupid idea, but better than no idea at all.**

**I put my back to the big pine tree and waved my red jacket in front of the bull-man, thinking I'd jump out of the way at the last moment.**

**But it didn't happen like that.**

"What do you mean 'It didn't happen like that.'?" Travis asked.

"You'll find out soon enough" Katie scolded.

**The bull-man charged too fast, his arms out to grab me whichever way I tried to dodge.**

**Time slowed down.**

**My legs tensed. I couldn't jump sideways, so I leaped straight up, kicking off from the creature's head, using it as a springboard, turning in midair, and landing on his neck.**

**How did I do that?**

Nico looked like he had the same question.

**I didn't have time to figure it out. A millisecond later, the monster's head slammed into the tree and the impact nearly knocked my teeth out.**

**The bull-man staggered around, trying to shake me. I locked my arms around his horns to keep from being thrown. Thunder and lightning were still going strong. The rain was in my eyes. The smell of rotten meat burned my nostrils.**

"Delicious." Silena said, looking green.

**The monster shook himself around and bucked like a rodeo bull. He should have just backed up into the tree and smashed me flat, but I was starting to realize that this thing had only one gear: forward.**

**Meanwhile, Grover started groaning in the grass. I wanted to yell at him to shut up, but the way I was getting tossed around, if I opened my mouth I'd bite my own tongue off.**

**"Food!" Grover moaned.**

**The bull-man wheeled toward him, pawed the ground again, and got ready to charge. I thought about how he had squeezed the life out of my mother, made her disappear in a flash of light, and rage filled me like high-octane fuel. I got both hands around one horn and I pulled backward with all my might. The monster tensed, gave a surprised grunt, then—snap!**

" That's how you did it" Connor asked shocked. I blushed and nodded.

Malcolm looked at me with wide eyes, " Never getting you mad" he said, jaw hanging.

**The bull-man screamed and flung me through the air. I landed flat on my back in the grass. My head smacked against a rock.**

Nico dropped the book and grabbed my head. He inspected my head, as if to see if there was any injuries. He sighed in relief and gave me a small hug. Then he picked the book back up and continued reading.

**When I sat up, my vision was blurry, but I had a horn in my hands, a ragged bone weapon the size of a knife.**

**The monster charged.**

**Without thinking, I rolled to one side and came up kneeling. As the monster barreled past, I drove the broken horn straight into his side, right up under his furry rib cage.**

**The bull-man roared in agony. He flailed, clawing at his chest, then began to disintegrate—not like my mother, in a flash of golden light, but like crumbling sand, blown away in chunks by the wind, the same way Mrs. Dodds had burst apart.**

**The monster was gone.**

"Wow, you're vicious when upset" Silena stated, looking scared.

I flipped my hair and giggled.

**The rain had stopped. The storm still rumbled, but only in the distance. I smelled like livestock and my knees were shaking. My head felt like it was splitting open. I was weak and scared and trembling with grief I'd just seen my mother vanish. I wanted to lie down and cry, but there was Grover, needing my help, so I managed to haul him up and stagger down into the valley, toward the lights of the farm house. I was crying, calling for my mother, but I held on to Grover—I wasn't going to let him go.**

" Annie" Nico whispered sounding sympathetic.

I gave him a tiny smile.

**The last thing I remember is collapsing on a wooden porch, looking up at a ceiling fan circling above me, moths flying around a yellow light, and the stern faces of a familiar-looking bearded man and a girl, her blond hair curled like a princess's.**

" I always loved your hair" I told Annabeth. She blushed and mumbled a thank you.

**They both looked down at me, and the girl said, "She's the one. She must be."**

" That kind of creeped" I said chuckling.

**"Silence, Annabeth," the man said. "She's still conscious. Bring her inside."**

" That's the end. You wanna read next?" He asked me.

"Meh" I shrugged and accepted the book.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

Yeah, still can't do that line break thing. I might update in a few days. Have a great week!

Star*****


	5. Chapter 5

…So I'm back earlier then expected. I decided that the other fanfic could wait and continued. By the way, I went over a few chapters and noticed mistakes. If you find any mistakes please don't hesitate to point it out to me.

Disclaimer: still don't own it, still kind of depressed about that.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

"Before we begin, we shall have lunch," Chiron announced.

I placed the book on the table and we did our usual lunch ritual. As I approached the fire, I threw in some strawberries in honor of my father. I walked back to my table to find Malcolm and Nico sitting there too. I raised my eyebrow at Malcolm but sat down anyways.

" Why is he sitting here?" Nico asked me, looking pointedly at Malcolm.

I shrugged my shoulders in a "Who knows?" type of way. After everyone finished eating, I began to read.

"**I PLAY PINOCHLE WITH A HORSE"**

I blushed, "Sorry about that Chiron" I said sheepishly.

He waved my apology away, looking slightly amused.

**I had weird dreams full of barnyard animals. Most of them wanted to kill me. The rest wanted food.**

"Wonder where that came from." Nico said nudging me.

I giggled.

**I must've woken up several times, but what I heard and saw made no sense, so I just passed out again. I remember lying in a soft bed, being spoon-fed something that tasted like buttered popcorn, only it was pudding. The girl with curly blond hair hovered over me, smirking as she scraped drips off my chin with the spoon.**

"That was kind of strange, like feeding a baby" Annabeth smirked at me.

I stuck my tongue out at her.

**When she saw my eyes open, she asked, "What will happen at the summer solstice?"**

"You should let her rest Annabeth." Malcolm scolded.

Annabeth grinned abashedly.

**I managed to croak, "…Huh?"**

" How eloquent" Will teased.

I pouted, excuse me for being half unconscious

**She looked around, as if afraid someone would over hear. "What's going on? What was stolen? We've only got a few weeks!"**

"**Sorry," I mumbled, "I don't..."**

**Somebody knocked on the door, and the girl quickly filled my mouth with pudding.**

Nico snickered, " That's one way to shut her up," he laughed, throwing his arm over my shoulder to show me that he's joking.

**The next time I woke up, the girl was gone.**

**A husky blond dude, like a surfer, stood in the corner of the bedroom keeping watch over me. He had blue eyes- at least a dozen of them- on his cheeks, his forehead, and the backs of his hands.**

"How does he do anything without poking himself in the eye?" Travis asked.

We all shrugged, who knows?

**When I finally came around for good, there was nothing weird about my surroundings, except that they were nicer than I was used to. I was sitting in a deck chair on a huge porch, gazing across a meadow at green hills in the distance. The breeze smelled like strawberries. I love strawberries.**

" Stop repeating yourself, Persephany" Connor said, wagging his finger.

I glared at him; I hate people calling me that.

**There was a blanket over my legs, a pillow behind my neck. All that was great, but my mouth felt like a scorpion had been using it for a nest. My tongue was dry and nasty and every one of my teeth hurt. On the table next to me was a tall drink. It looked like iced apple juice, with a green straw and a paper parasol stuck through a maraschino cherry. I really like apple juice. And drinks with umbrellas.**

" Haha! So everything was pretty much paradise for you huh?" Silena giggled.

**My hand was so weak I almost dropped the glass once I got my fingers around it.**

**"Careful," a familiar voice said.**

**Grover was leaning against the porch railing, looking like he hadn't slept in a week.**

"I didn't, to worried," Grover said.

" Aww Grover! You're to sweet," I cooed at him, resulting in a huge blush coating his cheeks.

**Under one arm, he cradled a shoebox. He was wearing blue jeans, Converse hi-tops and a bright orange T-shirt that said CAMP HALF-BLOOD. Just plain old Grover, Not the goat boy.**

**So maybe I'd had a nightmare. Maybe my mom was okay. We were still on vacation, and we'd stopped here at this big house for some reason. And...**

Annabeth looked at me with pity in her eyes.

**"You saved my life," Grover said. "I... well, the least I could do ... I went back to the hill. I thought you might want this."**

**Reverently, he placed the shoebox in my lap.**

**Inside was a black-and-white bull's horn, the base jagged from being broken off, the tip splattered with dried blood. It hadn't been a nightmare. Why would he think I would want this?**

**"The Minotaur," I said.**

"You shouldn't say the name." Pollux said glancing around nervously.

**"Um, Percy, it isn't a good idea-"**

**"That's what they call him in the Greek myths, isn't it?" I demanded. "The Minotaur. Half man, half bull."**

**Grover shifted uncomfortably. "You've been out for two days. How much do you remember?"**

**"My mom. Is she really..."**

**He looked down.**

I sniffed, that had been painful to hear. Nico squeezed me to his side.

" Do you want me to read?" he whispered to me.

I shook my head and continued.

**I stared across the meadow. There were groves of trees, a winding stream, acres of strawberries spread out under the blue sky. Rolling hills surrounded the valley, and the tallest one, directly in front of us, was the one with the huge pine tree on top. Even that looked beautiful in the sunlight.**

**My mother was gone. The whole world should be black and cold. Nothing should look beautiful.**

Many of the girls had tears in their eyes.

**"I'm sorry," Grover sniffled. "I'm a failure. I'm- I'm the worst satyr in the world."**

"No your not." I said.

He smiled at me sadly.

**He moaned, stomping his foot so hard it came off. I mean, the Converse hi-top came off. The inside was filled with Styrofoam, except for a hoof-shaped hole.**

**"Oh, Styx!" he mumbled.**

**Thunder rolled across the clear sky.**

**As he struggled to get his hoof back in the fake foot, I thought, Well that settles it.**

**Grover was a satyr. I was ready to bet that if I shaved his curly brown hair, I'd find tiny horns on his head.**

**But I was too miserable to care that satyrs existed, or even Minotaur's. All that meant was my mom really had been squeezed into nothingness, dissolved into yellow light.**

Clarisse scoffed, " It's not like she actually _died_," she said, rolling her eyes.

I had finally had enough; I stood up, walked over to her table and slapped her as hard as I could. She looked shocked, a red hand-shaped bruise already forming on her face. I stormed back to my table and continued reading.

**I was alone. An orphan. I would have to live with ... Smelly Gabe?**

**No. That would never happen. I would live on the streets first. I would pretend I was seventeen and join the army. I'd do something.**

Nobody said anything about my stupid idea. Everyone was still surprised about me hitting Clarisse.

**Grover was still sniffling. The poor kid- poor goat, satyr, whatever- looked as if he expected to be hit.**

**I said, "It wasn't your fault."**

**"Yes, it was. I was supposed to **_**protect **_**you."**

**"Did my mother ask you to protect me?"**

**"No. But that's my job. I'm a keeper. At least... I was."**

**"But why..." I suddenly felt dizzy, my vision swimming.**

**"Don't strain yourself," Grover said. "Here." He helped me hold my glass and put the straw to my lips.**

" That tasted really good," I muttered to myself.

**I recoiled at the taste, because I was expecting apple juice. It wasn't that at all. It was chocolate-chip cookies. Liquid cookies.**

**And not just any cookies- my mom's homemade blue chocolate-chip cookies, buttery and hot, with the chips still melting. Drinking it, my whole body felt warm and good, full of energy. My grief didn't go away, but I felt as if my mom had just brushed her hand against my cheek, given me a cookie the way she used to when I was small, and told me everything was going to be okay.**

I smiled at that, but I was still sad and angry inside.

**Before I knew it, I'd drained the glass. I stared into it, sure I'd just had a warm drink, but the ice cubes hadn't even melted.**

**"Was it good?" Grover asked.**

**I nodded.**

**"What did it taste like?" He sounded so wistful, I felt guilty.**

**"Sorry," I said. "I should've let you taste."**

**His eyes got wide. "No! That's not what I meant. I just... wondered."**

"What would happen if a satyr drank nectar? Travis asked, snapping out of shock first.

"The same thing if a mortal drank it." Chiron answered.

I was a bit surprised when Chiron still didn't do anything about me slapping Clarisse.

**"Chocolate-chip cookies," I said. "My mom's. Home made."**

**He sighed. "And how do you feel?"**

**"Like I could throw Nancy Bobofit a hundred yards."**

Nico gave a small laugh.

**"That's good," he said. "That's good. I don't think you could risk drinking any more of that stuff"**

**"What do you mean?"**

"He means you would burst into flames!" Conner said with a lot of enthusiasm.

**He took the empty glass from me gingerly, as if it were dynamite, and set it back on the table. "Come on. Chiron and Mr. D are waiting."**

**The porch wrapped all the way around the farmhouse.**

**My legs felt wobbly, trying to walk that far. Grover offered to carry the Minotaur horn, but I held on to it. I'd paid for that souvenir the hard way. I wasn't going to let it go.**

**As we came around the opposite end of the house, I caught my breath.**

I sighed, thinking of the first time I saw camp. It so beautiful.

**We must've been on the north shore of Long Island, because on this side of the house, the valley marched all the way up to the water, which glittered about a mile in the distance. Between here and there, I simply couldn't process everything I was seeing. The landscape was dotted with buildings that looked like ancient Greek architecture an open-air pavilion, an amphitheater, a circular arena except that they all looked brand new, their white marble columns sparkling in the sun. In a nearby sandpit, a dozen high school-age kids and satyrs played volleyball. Canoes glided across a small lake. Kids in bright orange T-shirts like Grover's were chasing each other around a cluster of cabins nestled in the woods. Some shot targets at an archery range. Others rode horses down a wooded trail, and, unless I was hallucinating, some of their horses had wings.**

"Nope," Katie said, popping the P. "Those are the Pegasus."

" I love Pegasus!" I grinned. I whistled loudly, causing Nico and Malcolm to cover their ears. Suddenly my faithful Pegasus Blackjack appeared.

" You called boss?" he asked. I smiled at him.

I got up and whispered in his ear. He nodded and took of. I walked back to my seat and ignored the curious looks.

**Down at the end of the porch, two men sat across from each other at a card table. The blond-haired girl who'd spoon-fed me popcorn-flavored pudding was leaning on the porch rail next to them. The man facing me was small, but porky. He had a red nose, big watery eyes, and curly hair so black it was almost purple. He looked like those paintings of baby angels- what do you call them, hubbubs? No, cherubs. That's it. He looked like a cherub who'd turned middle-aged in a trailer park.**

Mr. D looked furious at his description.

**He wore a tiger-pattern Hawaiian shirt, and he would've fit right in at one of Gabe's poker parties, except I got the feeling this guy could've out-gambled even my step father.**

"I'm not so sure, since he loses every card game he ever plays." I muttered to Nico.

He coughed to mask his laughter.

**"That's Mr. D," Grover murmured to me. "He's the camp director. Be polite. The girl, that's Annabeth Chase. She's just a camper, but she's been here longer than just about anybody. And you already know Chiron..."**

**He pointed at the guy whose back was to me.**

**First, I realized he was sitting in the wheelchair. Then I recognized the tweed jacket, the thinning brown hair, and the scraggly beard.**

**"Mr. Brunner!" I cried.**

**The Latin teacher turned and smiled at me. His eyes had that mischievous glint they sometimes got in class when he pulled a pop quiz and made all the multiple-choice answers **_**B**_**.**

"You really do that?" Travis asked. Chiron smiled slyly.

**"Ah, good, Percy," he said. "Now we have four for pinochle."**

**He offered me a chair to the right of Mr. D, who looked at me with bloodshot eyes and heaved a great sigh. "Oh, I suppose I must say it. Welcome to Camp Half-Blood. There. Now, don't expect me to be glad to see you."**

**"Thank you! I'm not so psyched to be here either." I grinned falsely cheery. I still scooted a little farther away from him though, because, **_**if **_**there was one thing I had learned from living with Gabe, it was how to tell when an adult has been hitting the happy juice. If Mr. D was a stranger to alcohol, I was a satyr.**

Mr.D glared at me fiercely.

**"Annabeth?" Mr. Brunner called to the blond girl.**

**She came forward and Mr. Brunner introduced us. "This young lady nursed you back to health, Percy. Annabeth, my dear, why don't you go check on Percy's bunk? We'll be putting her in cabin eleven for now."**

**Annabeth said, "Sure, Chiron."**

Suddenly Blackjack came back with an ice pack in his mouth. He gave it to me and nuzzled my head.

" Here you go boss, one ice pack," he said.

" Thanks Blackjack" I said, before getting up and handing it to Clarisse. She looked surprised but took it anyways. I returned to my seat and leant against Blackjack before continuing.

**She was probably my age, maybe a couple of inches taller, and a whole lot more athletic looking. With her deep tan and her curly blond hair, she was almost exactly what I thought a stereotypical California girl would look like, except her eyes ruined the image. They were startling gray, like storm clouds; pretty, but intimidating, too, as if she were analyzing the best way to take me down in a fight.**

Annabeth blushed, that was exactly what she was thinking.

**She glanced at the Minotaur horn in my hands, then back at me. I imagined she was going to say, **_**You feeling better? **_**Or **_**Wow, Hi Welcome to camp! **_**Or something like that.**

**Instead she said, "You drool when you sleep."**

**Then she sprinted off down the lawn, her blond hair flying behind her.**

**"So," I said, anxious to change the subject. "You, uh, work here, Mr. Brunner?"**

**"Not Mr. Brunner," the ex-Mr. Brunner said. "I'm afraid that was a pseudonym. You may call me Chiron."**

" I was so confused by that point." I told Chiron conversationally.

**"Okay." Totally confused, I looked at the director. "And Mr. D ... does that stand for something?"**

**Mr. D stopped shuffling the cards. He looked at me like I'd just belched loudly. "Young lady, names are powerful things. You don't just go around using them for no reason."**

"I never really understood that." Travis said.

**"Right. Sorry."**

**"I must say, Percy," Chiron-Brunner broke in, "I'm glad to see you alive. It's been a long time since I've made a house call to a potential camper. I'd hate to think I've wasted my time."**

**"House call?"**

**"My year at Yancy Academy, to instruct you. We have satyrs at most schools, of course, keeping a lookout. But Grover alerted me as soon as he met you. He sensed you were something special, so I decided to come upstate. I convinced the other Latin teacher to ... ah, take a leave of absence."**

"What did you do?" Conner asked

"None of your business." Chiron said.

Connor pouted.

**I tried to remember the beginning of the school year. It seemed like so long ago, but I did have a fuzzy memory of there being another Latin teacher my first week at Yancy. Then, without explanation, he had disappeared and Mr. Brunner had taken the class.**

**"You came to Yancy just to teach me?" I asked.**

"I felt so _special_" I said grinning.

**Chiron nodded. "Honestly, I wasn't sure about you at first.**

**We contacted your mother; let her know we were keeping an eye on you in case you were ready for Camp Half-Blood. But you still had so much to learn. Nevertheless, you made it here alive, and that's always the first test."**

**"Grover," Mr. D said impatiently, "are you playing or not?"**

**"Yes, sir!" Grover trembled as he took the fourth chair, though I didn't know why he should be so afraid of a pudgy little man in a tiger-print Hawaiian shirt.**

"Again, you make me sound like a wimp" Grover huffed.

" That's because you are," I told him sweetly.

**"You **_**do **_**know how to play pinochle?" Mr. D eyed me suspiciously.**

**"I'm afraid not," I said.**

**"I'm afraid not, **_**sir**_**," he said.**

**"Sir," I repeated. I was liking the camp director less and less.**

I huffed; he was a bit of an asshole in the beginning.

**"Well," he told me, "it is, along with gladiator fighting and Pac-Man, one of the greatest games ever invented by humans. I would expect all **_**civilized **_**young adults to know the rules."**

"I don't think any one besides Mr. D and you, Chiron know how to play." Malcolm said.

**"I'm sure the girl can learn," Chiron said.**

**I'd rather not but no use arguing.**

**"Please," I said, "what is this place? What am I doing here? Mr. Brunner-Chiron, why would you go to Yancy Academy just to teach me?"**

**Mr. D snorted. "I asked the same question."**

**The camp director dealt the cards. Grover flinched every time one landed in his pile.**

**Chiron smiled at me sympathetically, the way he used to in Latin class, as if to let me know that no matter what my average was, **_**I **_**was his star student. He expected **_**me **_**to have the right answer.**

**"Percy," he said. "Did your mother tell you nothing?"**

"You shouldn't ask about her mother." Silena said.

**"She said..." I remembered her sad eyes, looking out over the sea. "She told me she was afraid to send me here, even though my father had wanted her to. She said that once I was here, I probably couldn't leave. She wanted to keep me close to her."**

**"Typical," Mr. D said. "That's how they usually get killed. Young lady, are you bidding or not?"**

**"What?" I asked.**

**He explained, rather impatiently, how you bid in pinochle, and so I did.**

**"I'm afraid there's too much to tell," Chiron said. "I'm afraid our usual orientation film won't be sufficient."**

"I love the orientation video." Katie said.

" Oh just rub it in why don't you" I said pouting.

**"Orientation film?" I asked.**

**"No," Chiron decided. "Well, Percy. You know your friend Grover is a satyr. You know-" he pointed to the horn in the shoe box- "that you have killed the Minotaur.**

**No small feat, either, lass. What you may not know is that great powers are at work in your life. Gods- the forces you call the Greek gods- are very much alive."**

**I stared at the others around the table.**

**I waited for somebody to yell, **_**Not!**_

"NOT!" Travis shouted

"Idiot." Annabeth mumbled.

**But all I got was Mr. D yelling, "Oh, a royal marriage. Trick! Trick!" He cackled as he tallied up his points.**

**"Mr. D," Grover asked timidly, "if you're not going to eat it, could I have your Diet Coke can?"**

I giggled, classic Grover.

**"Eh? Oh, all right."**

**Grover bit a huge shard out of the empty aluminum can and chewed it mournfully.**

**"Wait," I told Chiron. "You're telling me there's such a thing as god."**

**"Well, now," Chiron said. "God- capital **_**G**_**, God. That's a different matter altogether. We shan't deal with the metaphysical."**

**"Metaphysical? But you were just talking about-"**

**"Ah, gods, plural, as in, great beings that control the forces of nature and human endeavors: the immortal gods of Olympus. That's a smaller matter."**

"Ouch, someone just got a deflated ego" I snickered when I heard thunder booming.

**"Smaller?"**

**"Yes, quite. The gods we discussed in Latin class."**

**"Zeus," I said. "Athena. Apollo. You mean them."**

**And there it was again, distant thunder on a cloud less day.**

**"Young lady," said Mr. D, "I would really be less casual about throwing those names around, if I were you."**

**"But they're stories," I said. "They're- myths, to explain lightning and the seasons and stuff. They're what people believed before there was science."**

"Mr. D's not gonna like that." Conner said.

**"Science!" Mr. D scoffed. "And tell me, Persephany Jackson"-I flinched when he said my real name, which I never told anybody- "what will people think of your 'science' two thousand years from now?" Mr. D continued. "Hmm? They will call it primitive mumbo jumbo. That's what. Oh, I love mortals- they have absolutely no sense of perspective. They think they've come **_**so-o-o **_**far. And have they, Chiron? Look at this girl and tell me."**

"That's harsh." Nico snarled.

**I wasn't liking Mr. D much, but there was something about the way he called me mortal, as if... he wasn't. It was enough to put a lump in my throat, to suggest why Grover was dutifully minding his cards, chewing his soda can, and keeping his mouth shut.**

**"Percy," Chiron said, "you may choose to believe or not, but the fact is that **_**immortal **_**means immortal. Can you imagine that for a moment, never dying? Never fading? Existing, just as you are, for all time?"**

**I was about to answer, off the top of my head that it sounded like a horrible idea but the tone of Chiron's voice made me hesitate.**

" Horrible idea?" Will asked me.

" Imagine watching everyone you love die, and staying alive yourself," I said, shrugging my shoulders.

**"You mean, whether people believed in you or not," I said.**

"**"Exactly," Chiron agreed. "If you were a goddess, how would you like being called a myth, an old story to explain lightning? What if I told you, Persephany Jackson, that some day people would call **_**you **_**a myth, just created to explain how little girls can get over losing their mothers?"**

"That hurt, a lot." I said.

Chiron looked down guiltily.

**My heart pounded. He was trying to make me angry for some reason, but I wasn't going to let him. I said, "I wouldn't like it. But I don't believe in gods."**

"Did anyone, when they first came here?" Malcolm asked.

**"Oh, you'd better," Mr. D murmured. "Before one of them incinerates you."**

**Grover said, "P-please, sir. She's just lost her mother. She's in shock."**

"I doubt Mr. D cares." I grumbled.

**"A lucky thing, too," Mr. D grumbled, playing a card. "Bad enough I'm confined to this miserable job, working with girls who don't even believe.'"**

**He waved his hand and a goblet appeared on the table, as if the sunlight had bent, momentarily, and woven the air into glass. The goblet filled itself with red wine.**

"He's not supposed to do that." Nico said in a mocking voice.

**My jaw dropped, but Chiron hardly looked up.**

**"Mr. D," he warned, "your restrictions."**

**Mr. D looked at the wine and feigned surprise.**

**"Dear me." He looked at the sky and yelled, "Old habits! Sorry!"**

"Right." Conner drawled with sarcasm.

**More thunder.**

**Mr. D waved his hand again, and the wineglass changed into a fresh can of Diet Coke. He sighed unhappily, popped the top of the soda, and went back to his card game.**

**Chiron winked at me. "Mr. D offended his father a while back, took a fancy to a wood nymph who had been declared off-limits."**

**"A wood nymph," I repeated, still staring at the Diet Coke can like it was from outer space.**

" Maybe, it did" Travis said, before fainting to the ground.

I blinked, once, twice, and then went on with the story.

**"Yes," Mr. D confessed. "Father loves to punish me. The first time, Prohibition. Ghastly! Absolutely horrid ten years! The second time- well, she really was pretty, and I couldn't stay away- the second time, he sent me here. Half-Blood Hill. Summer camp for brats like you. 'Be a better influence,' he told me. 'Work with youths rather than tearing them down.' Ha.' Absolutely unfair."**

**Mr. D sounded about six years old, like a pouting little kid.**

A few people laughed at that.

**"And." I stammered, "your father is …"**

I gave an annoyed sigh. I was such an idiot, it was quite obvious.

_**"Di immortales, **_**Chiron," Mr. D said. "I thought you taught this girl the basics. My father is Zeus, of course."**

**I ran through D names from Greek mythology. Wine. The skin of a tiger. The satyrs that all seemed to work here. The way Grover cringed, as if Mr. D were his master.**

**"You're Dionysus," I said. "The god of wine."**

**Mr. D rolled his eyes. "What do they say, these days, Grover? Do the children say, 'Well, duh!'"**

**"Y-yes, Mr. D."**

**"Then, well, duh! Percy Jackson. Did you think I was Aphrodite, perhaps?"**

**"You're a god."**

**"Yes, child."**

**"A god. You."**

Nico chuckled. Mr. D doesn't seem very god like.

**He turned to look at me straight on, and I saw a kind of purplish fire in his eyes, a hint that this whiny, plump little man was only showing me the tiniest bit of his true nature. I saw visions of grape vines choking unbelievers to death, drunken warriors insane with battle lust, sailors screaming as their hands turned to flippers, their faces elongating into dolphin snouts. I knew that if I pushed him, Mr. D would show me worse things. He would plant a disease in my brain that would leave me wearing a straitjacket in a rubber room for the rest of my life.**

**"Would you like to test me, child?" he said quietly.**

**"No. No, sir."**

**The fire died a little. He turned back to his card game. "I believe I win."**

**"Not quite, Mr. D," Chiron said. He set down a straight, tallied the points, and said, "The game goes to me."**

"Has he ever won?" I asked.

"No." Chiron said.

**I thought Mr. D was going to vaporize Chiron right out of his wheelchair, but he just sighed through his nose, as if he were used to being beaten by the Latin teacher. He got up, and Grover rose, too.**

**"I'm tired," Mr. D said. "I believe I'll take a nap before the sing-along tonight. But first, Grover, we need to talk, **_**again, **_**about your less-than-perfect performance on this assignment."**

**Grover's face beaded with sweat. "Y-yes, sir."**

**Mr. D turned to me. "Cabin eleven, Percy Jackson. And mind your manners."**

**He swept into the farmhouse, Grover following miserably.**

**"Will Grover be okay?" I asked Chiron.**

Grover smiled at me.

**Chiron nodded, though he looked a bit troubled. "Old Dionysus isn't really mad. He just hates his job. He's been ... ah, grounded, I guess you would say, and he can't stand waiting another century before he's allowed to go back to Olympus."**

**"Mount Olympus," I said. "You're telling me there really is a palace there?"**

"Not the one in Greece." Annabeth said.

**"Well now, there's Mount Olympus in Greece. And then there's the home of the gods, the convergence point of their powers, which did indeed used to be on Mount Olympus. It's still called Mount Olympus, out of respect to the old ways, but the palace moves, Percy, just as the gods do."**

**"You mean the Greek gods are here? Like ... in **_**America**_**?"**

"Yup." Conner said popping the P.

**"Well, certainly. The gods move with the heart of the West."**

**"The what?"**

"Western civilization." Chiron said.

**"Come now, Percy. What you call 'Western civilization.' Do you think it's just an abstract concept? No, it's a living force. A collective consciousness that has burned bright for thousands of years. The gods are part of it. You might even say they are the source of it, or at least, they are tied so tightly to it that they couldn't possibly fade, not unless all of Western civilization was obliterated. The fire started in Greece. Then, as you well know- or as I hope you know, since you passed my course- the heart of the fire moved to Rome, and so did the gods. Oh, different names, perhaps- Jupiter for Zeus, Venus for Aphrodite, and so on- but the same forces, the same gods."**

**"And then they … **_**moved**_**?"**

**"Yes the gods simply moved, to Germany, to France, to Spain, for a while. Wherever the flame was brightest, the gods were there. They spent several centuries in England. All you need to do is look at the architecture.**

Annabeth had a dreamy look in her eyes.

**People do not forget the gods. Every place they've ruled, for the last three thousand years, you can see them in paintings, in statues, on the most important buildings. And yes, Percy, of course they are now in your United States. Look at your symbol, the eagle of Zeus. Look at the statue of Prometheus in Rockefeller Center, the Greek facades of your government buildings in Washington. I defy you to find any American city where the Olympians are not prominently displayed in multiple places. Like it or not- and believe me, plenty of people weren't very fond of Rome, either- America is now the heart of the flame. It is the great power of the West. And so Olympus is here. And we are here."**

"Does that mean the camp moves too?" I asked. Chiron nodded.

"Wow" I muttered.

**It was all too much; especially the fact that **_**I **_**seemed to be included in Chiron's **_**we, **_**as if I were part of some club.**

**"Who are you, Chiron? Who ... who am I?"**

A few laughed at the cheesy line.

**Chiron smiled. He shifted his weight as if he was going to get up out of his wheelchair, but I knew that was impossible. He was paralyzed from the waist down.**

"No, that's his horse part." Travis said.

I jumped; I didn't know he woke up.

**"Who are you?" he mused. "Well, that's the question we all want answered, isn't it? But for now, we should get you a bunk in cabin eleven. There will be new friends to 'meet. And plenty of time for lessons tomorrow. Besides, there will be smores at the campfire tonight, and I simply adore chocolate."**

"I love chocolate too." Silena said.

I nodded in agreement, licking my lips.

**And then he did rise from his wheelchair. But there was something odd about the way he did it. His blanket fell away from his legs, but the legs didn't move. His waist kept getting longer, rising above his belt. At first, I thought he was wearing very long, white velvet underwear, but as he kept rising out of the chair, taller than any man, I realized that the velvet underwear wasn't underwear; it was the front of an animal, muscle and sinew under coarse white fur. And the wheelchair wasn't a chair. It was some kind of container, an enormous box on wheels, and it must've been magic, because there's no way it could've held all of him. A leg came out, long and knobby-kneed, with a huge polished hoof. Then another front leg, then hindquarters, and then the box was empty, nothing but a metal shell with a couple of fake human legs attached.**

I remember how scared I was when I first saw that. I almost screamed.

**I stared at the horse that had just sprung from the wheelchair: a huge white stallion. But where its neck should be was the upper body of my Latin teacher, smoothly grafted to the horse's trunk.**

**"What a relief," the centaur said. "I'd been cooped up in there so long, my fetlocks had fallen asleep. Now, come, Percy Jackson. Let's meet the other campers."**

" Finally!" I said, putting the book down.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

That's it for today! Please review.

Star****


	6. Chapter 6

I feel bad. I lied and didn't update yesterday, oops. Hugs and Kisses to the people who reviewed/followed/favorite this story. One of the reviews particularly intrigued me, from XxxBellaBellaxxX.

This is a great story; I love the NicoxPercy pairing :). Now I have an idea for a story, but I suck at writing them so I won't attempt to write it myself, but if anyone wants to use it as their own they can, I'm suggesting it because I think its a good idea and it wouldn't leave me alone.

Here it is: The Avengers get called to Hogwarts during fem! Harry's (named Bella potter) 5th year and they meet everyone at the order of the phoenix headquarters (no. 12 Grimmauld place) and when everyone is their (fem! Harry's, Hermione, weaselys, order, avengers, fury, agent hill, pepper, Jane, Loki, etc.) The Bella Potter books appear, and they have too read them all before they can leave :)

So if anyone wants to do that type of story go ahead :) I know I would read it over and over again, I would also review every chapter: D.

First thanks you for the review and for your kind words. Second, while I would love to write this story, I have no clue who the Avengers are. As she said, if anyone wants to use her idea, please do. It seems like it would be very interesting. Onto the story!

Disclaimer: Still don't own it, never will unless Rick decides to visit and pass over the rights to me. Doubt that though.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

"This is the last chapter before dinner. We will continue reading tomorrow," Chiron said.

"Who wants to read?" I asked after a moment of silence**.**

" Oh I do, I do!" Silena shrieked, jumping in her seat.

"Alright, catch" I told her, and tossed the book. She caught it with surprising ease and began to read.

"**I BECOME SUPREME LADY OF THE BATHROOM" **she read.

**Once I got over the fact that my Latin teacher was a horse, we had a nice tour, though I was careful not to walk behind him. I'd done pooper-scooper patrol in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade a few times, and, I'm sorry, I did not trust Chiron's back end the way I trusted his front.**

Malcolm chuckled at that, while Chiron looked annoyed.

**We passed the volleyball pit. Several of the campers nudged each other. One pointed to the Minotaur horn I was carrying. Another said, "That's _her_. She's prettier than I thought she would be" I blushed brightly when I heard that.**

Annabeth raised her eyebrows," Seems like someone had a crush on you" she teased.

I stuck my tongue out at her.

**Most of the campers were older than me. Their satyr friends were bigger than Grover, all of them trotting around in orange CAMP HALF-BLOOD T-shirts, with nothing else to cover their bare shaggy hindquarters. I wasn't normally shy, but the way they stared at me made me uncomfortable. I felt like they were expecting me to do a back tuck or something.**

"Can you?" Travis asked.

"Course I can, I used to do gymnastics," I told him proudly.

" Really? Show me!" Will begged.

With a sigh I stood up, walked over to an empty space and did a back tuck. The looks of shock and awe on their faces made me laugh.

**I looked back at the farmhouse. It was a lot bigger than I'd realized—four stories tall, sky blue with white trim, like an upscale seaside resort. I was checking out the brass eagle weather vane on top when something caught my eye, a shadow in the uppermost window of the attic gable. Something had moved the curtain, just for a second, and I got the distinct impression I was being watched.**

"Can the oracle move?" I asked. Chiron shrugged.

**"What's up there?" I asked Chiron.**

**He looked where I was pointing, and his smile faded. "Just the attic."**

**"Somebody lives there?"**

**"No," he said with finality. "Not a single living thing."**

**I got the feeling he was being truthful. At least telling half the truth. But I was also sure something had moved that curtain.**

**"Come along, Percy," Chiron said, his lighthearted tone now a little forced. "Lots to see."**

"You need to learn how to change a subject." Katie said.

Chiron blushed slightly.

**We walked through the strawberry fields, where campers were picking bushels of berries while a satyr played a tune on a reed pipe. Chiron told me the camp grew a nice crop for export to New York restaurants and Mount Olympus. "It pays our expenses," he explained. "And the strawberries take almost no effort." I grinned, " I love strawberries." I told him.**

" That's like the third time you said that" Connor said amused.

**He said Mr. D had this effect on fruit-bearing plants: they just went crazy when he was around. It worked best with wine grapes, but Mr. D was restricted from growing those, so they grew strawberries instead.**

"What do we do with the mortal money?" Silena asked.

"We use it for gas for the vans." Chiron said.

**I watched the satyr playing his pipe. His music was causing lines of bugs to leave the strawberry patch in every direction, like refugees fleeing a fire. I wondered if Grover could work that kind of magic with music.**

**I wondered if he was still inside the farmhouse, getting chewed out by Mr. D.**

**"Grover won't get in too much trouble, will he?" I asked Chiron. "I mean ... he was a good protector. Really."**

Grover grinned at me.

**Chiron sighed. He shed his tweed jacket and draped it over his horses back like a saddle. "Grover has big dreams, Percy. Perhaps bigger than is reasonable.**

**To reach his goal, he must first demonstrate great courage by succeeding as a keeper, finding a new camper and bringing them safely to Half-Blood Hill."**

**"But he did that! And he was my friend before that too! The only reason he had trouble is because I was to stubborn to listen to him"**

" I guess I can be kind of stubborn at times," I mumbled.

Nico grinned at me, " Kind of?" he asked me, teasing me.

I stuck my tongue out at him, " You're not suppose to agree with me" I pouted.

Travis and Connor chuckled, " Yeah Nico, you're not suppose to agree with her. You're suppose to be all 'oh don't worry sweetheart, you're not stubborn at all" Travis laughed.

I glared at him, " Call me sweetheart again, and I'll show you just how _sweet _I can be" I threatened.

His eyes widened in slight fear and he stopped laughing.

**"I might agree with you," Chiron said. "But it is not my place to judge. Dionysus and the Council of Cloven Elders must decide. I'm afraid they might not see this assignment as a success. After all, Grover lost you in New York. Then there's the unfortunate ... ah ... fate of your mother. And the fact that Grover was unconscious when you dragged him over the property line. The council might question whether this shows any courage on Grover's part."**

" Yeah, sorry about that Grover" I say while rubbing the back of my neck sheepishly.

Grover waved off my apology and shrugged good- naturally.

**I wanted to protest. None of what happened was Grover's fault. I also felt really, really guilty. If I hadn't given Grover the slip at the bus station, he might not have gotten in trouble.**

**"He'll get a second chance, won't he?"**

Grover signed.

**Chiron winced. "I'm afraid that _was _Grover's second chance, Percy. The council was not anxious to give him another, either, after what happened the first time, five years ago. Olympus knows, I advised him to wait longer before trying again. He's still so small for his age..."**

**"How old is he?"**

**"Oh, twenty-eight."**

**"What! And he's in sixth grade?"**

"For the sixth year in a row." Grover grumbled.

I winced, that must be horrible.

**"Satyrs mature half as fast as humans, Percy. Grover has been the equivalent of a middle school student for the past six years."**

**"That's horrible."**

**"Quite," Chiron agreed. "At any rate, Grover is a late bloomer, even by satyr standards, and not yet very accomplished at woodland magic. Alas, he was anxious to pursue his dream. Perhaps now he will find some other career..."**

**"That's not fair," I said. "What happened the first time? Was it really so bad?"**

I looked down sadly, bad is an understatement.

**Chiron looked away quickly. "Let's move along, shall we?"**

"Ugh," Malcolm sighed. "Again with the bad subject changing Chiron."

**But I wasn't quite ready to let the subject drop. Something had occurred to me when Chiron talked about my mother's fate, as if he were intentionally avoiding the word _death. _The beginnings of an idea—a tiny, hopeful fire—started forming in my mind.**

**"Chiron," I say conversationally. "If the gods and Olympus and all that are real..."**

**"Yes, child?"**

**"Does that mean the Underworld is real, too?"**

Clarisse looked at me surprisingly pityingly," You really love your mother don't you?" she asked softly.

I smiled gently, "Of course, she means the world to me. I went to hell and back to get her back home safely." I said.

Clarisse nodded slowly.

**Chiron's expression darkened.**

**"Yes, child." He paused, as if choosing his words care fully. "There is a place where spirits go after death. But for now ... until we know more ... I would urge you to put that out of your mind."**

"I would suggest that to." Annabeth said.

**"What do you mean, 'until we know more'?"**

**"Come, Percy. Let's see the woods."**

"I'm not even gonna say it." Will said.

"Good, so shut up" I glare at him, wanting this part to go by quickly.

**As we got closer, I realized how huge the forest was. It took up at least a quarter of the valley, with trees so tall and thick, you could imagine nobody had been in there since the Native Americans. It's beautiful.**

**Chiron said, "The woods are stocked, if you care to try your luck, but go armed."**

**"Stocked with what?" I asked. "Armed with what?"**

"What do you think?" Drew sneered.

I rolled my eyes at her and turned my attention back to Silena.

**"You'll see. Capture the flag is Friday night. Do you have your own sword and shield?"**

**"My own—?"**

**"No," Chiron said. "I don't suppose you do. I think a size five will do. I'll visit the armory later."**

**I wanted to ask what kind of summer camp had an armory, but there was too much else to think about, so the tour continued. We saw the archery range, the canoeing lake, the stables (which Chiron didn't seem to like very much),**

**The javelin range, the sing-along amphitheater, and the arena where Chiron said they held sword and spear fights.**

**"Sword and spear fights?" I asked grinning like mad.**

"Is having all these weapons near her a good idea?" Nico asked Chiron nervously.

I smiled and batted my eyelashes innocently.

**"Cabin challenges and all that," he explained. "Not lethal. Usually. Oh, yes, and there's the mess hall."**

**Chiron pointed to an outdoor pavilion framed in white Grecian columns on a hill overlooking the sea. There were a dozen stone picnic tables. No roof. No walls.**

**"What do you do when it rains?" I asked.**

**Chiron looked at me as if I'd gone a little weird.**

**"We still have to eat, don't we?" I decided to drop the subject.**

"I really thought we'd get soaked if there was ever a thundershower" I said slightly embarrassed.

A few people chuckled at me.

**Finally, he showed me the cabins. There were twelve of them, nestled in the woods by the lake. They were arranged in a U, with two at the base and five in a row on either side. And they were without doubt the most bizarre collection of buildings I'd ever seen. Except for the fact that each had a large brass number above the door (odds on the left side, evens on the right), they looked absolutely nothing alike. Number nine had smokestacks, like a tiny factory. Number four had tomato vines on the walls and a roof made out of real grass. Seven seemed to be made of solid gold, which gleamed so much in the sunlight it was almost impossible to look at. They all faced a commons area about the size of a soccer field, dotted with Greek statues, fountains, flowerbeds, and a couple of volleyball nets (which were more my speed).**

"Of course, the volleyball nets are better for the girl who killed the Minotaur." Katie muttered.

**In the center of the field was a huge stone-lined fire pit. Even though it was a warm afternoon, the hearth smoldered. A girl about nine years old was tending the flames, poking the coals with a stick.**

I sighed; I wish I had spoken to Hestia when I first came.

**The pair of cabins at the head of the field, numbers one and two, looked like his-and-hers mausoleums, big white marble boxes with heavy columns in front. Cabin one was the biggest and bulkiest of the twelve. Its polished bronze doors shimmered like a hologram, so that from different angles lightning bolts seemed to streak across them. Cabin two was more graceful somehow, with slimmer columns garlanded with pomegranates and flowers. The walls were carved with images of peacocks.**

**"Zeus and Hera?" I guessed.**

**"Correct," Chiron said.**

**"Their cabins look empty."**

"That's because they _are_" Travis said slowly, as if talking to a five year old.

I gave him a steely look, " Travis, if you don't shut up, I'll tell everyone about your little crush on Miss G-"

Travis threw his arms up in surrender," Ok I'm sorry" Travis half shouted, looking embarrassed.

I smirked at him and Nico leant over to whisper in my ear.

" Who's he got a crush on?" Nico mumbled, his breath hitting my ear. My breath caught in my throat before I put my fingers over my lips and faked locking them.

"Not telling" I whisper to him and giggled when he shivered.

**"Several of the cabins are. That's true. No one ever stays in one or two."**

**Okay. So each cabin had a different god, like a mascot.**

Drew scoffed. "Mascot, really?" she rolled her eyes. She batted her eyelashes at Nico, " Isn't that a stupid thought Nico," she asked him, giggling.

Nico snarled at her, " I'd appreciate if you didn't call Annie stupid" he glared at her.

Drew looked very angry, " Why do you even like her? I mean, she's not even that pretty. With those boring green eyes, to pale skin, like come on! There's something called the sun sweetie. And look at all of her ugly scars. Plus she desperately needs makeup " she said, smirking at me.

Tears threatened to fall as I bit my lip. Nico gathered me up in a tight hug and I put my head on his shoulder, as a tear slowly slid down my cheek, wetting his shirt. In his efforts to comfort me, he didn't say anything to Drew, only whispering kind and reassuring words to me.

Silena threw down the book in fury, " How dare you! So what if she has green eyes, so what if she doesn't tan and so what if she has scars? She's unique and kind and her scars show her bravery, which we can't even say about you. What's the most tragic thing that's happened to you huh? finishing your pink eyeshadow?" she asked Drew mockingly. Drew looked very offended but Silena didnt seem to care. She picked up the book and continued reading, after throwing a sympathetic glance my way as sobs hit me.

**Twelve cabins for the twelve Olympians. But why would some be empty? I stopped in front of the first cabin on the left, cabin three.**

**It wasn't high and mighty like cabin one, but long and low and solid. The outer walls were of rough gray stone studded with pieces of seashell and coral, as if the slabs had been fished straight from the bottom of the ocean floor. I peeked inside the open doorway and Chiron said, "Oh, I wouldn't do that!"**

**Before he could pull me back, I caught the salty scent of the interior, like the wind on the shore at Montauk.**

"Defiantly Poseidon's daughter" Nico mumbled, trying to cheer me up.

**The interior walls glowed like abalone. There were six empty bunk beds with silk sheets turned down. But there was no sign anyone had ever slept there. The place felt so sad and lonely, I was glad when Chiron put his hand on my shoulder and said, "Come along, Percy."**

**Most of the other cabins were crowded with campers.**

**Number five was bright red—a real nasty paint job, as if the color had been splashed on with buckets and fists.**

"That's because it was." Clarisse said chuckling.

**The roof was lined with barbed wire. A stuffed wild boar's head hung over the doorway, and its eyes seemed to follow me. Inside I could see a bunch of mean-looking kids, girls and boys, arm wrestling and arguing with each other while rock music blared. The loudest was a girl maybe thirteen or fourteen. She wore a size XXXL CAMP HALF-BLOOD T-shirt under a camouflage jacket. She zeroed in on me and gave me an evil sneer. She reminded me of Nancy Bobofit, though the camper girl was much bigger and tougher looking, and her hair was long and stringy, and brown instead of red.**

"Clarisse." Pollux said.

"Good, I'm finally in the story" Clarisse said, grumbling slightly.

**I kept walking, trying to stay clear of Chiron's hooves. "We haven't seen any other Centaurs," I observed.**

**"No," said Chiron sadly. "My kinsmen are a wild and barbaric folk, I'm afraid. You might encounter them in the wilderness, or at major sporting events. But you won't see any here."**

"That's because they're all partying it up in Vegas, or Miami." Grover said laughing, clearly remembering the "Party Ponies".

**"You said your name was Chiron. Are you really..."**

**He smiled down at me. _"The _Chiron from the stories? Trainer of Hercules and all that? Yes, Percy, I am."**

**"But, shouldn't you be dead?"**

"What a pleasant question." Travis said.

**Chiron paused, as if the question intrigued him. "I honestly don't know about _should _be. The truth is, I _can't _be dead. You see, eons ago the gods granted my wish. I could continue the work I loved. I could be a teacher of heroes as long as humanity needed me. I gained much from that wish ... and I gave up much. But I'm still here, so I can only assume I'm still needed."**

**I thought about being a teacher for three thousand years. It wouldn't have made my Top Ten Things to wish for list.**

" I want to be a teacher, but not for that long" I mumbled to Nico, finally stopping crying.

He smiled at me, " You'll make a great teacher," he whispered to me reassuringly.

**"Does it ever get boring?"**

**"No, no," he said. "Horribly depressing, at times, but never boring."**

**"Why depressing?"**

**Chiron seemed to turn hard of hearing again.**

**"Oh, look," he said. "Annabeth is waiting for us."**

**The blond girl I'd met at the Big House was reading a book in front of the last cabin on the left, number eleven.**

**When we reached her, she looked me over critically, like she was still thinking about how much I drooled.**

Silena giggled, "Wonder what she was dreaming about huh?" Silena winked at me and I blushed deep red at the insinuations.

**I tried to see what she was reading, but I couldn't make out the title. I thought my dyslexia was acting up. Then I realized the title wasn't even English. The letters looked Greek to me. I mean, literally Greek.**

**There were pictures of temples and statues and different kinds of columns, like those in an architecture book.**

"That's because it is an architecture book." Annabeth said.

**"Annabeth," Chiron said, "I have masters' archery class at noon. Would you take Percy from here?"**

**"Yes, sir."**

**"Cabin eleven," Chiron told me, gesturing toward the doorway. "Make yourself at home."**

**Out of all the cabins, eleven looked the most like a regular old summer camp cabin, with the emphasis on _old. _The threshold was worn down, the brown paint peeling. Over the doorway was one of those doctor's symbols, a winged pole with two snakes wrapped around it. What did they call it...?**

"A caduceus." Nico says.

**A caduceus.**

We blushed while people laughed at us, especially Silena.

**Inside, it was packed with people, both boys and girls, way more than the number of bunk beds. Sleeping bags were spread all over on the floor. It looked like a gym where the Red Cross had set up an evacuation center.**

Travis and Conner smiled at the description of their cabin.

**Chiron didn't go in. The door was too low for him. But when the campers saw him they all stood and bowed respectfully.**

**"Well, then," Chiron said. "Good luck, Percy. I'll see you at dinner."**

**He galloped away toward the archery range.**

**I stood in the doorway, looking at the kids. They weren't bowing anymore. They were staring at me, sizing me up. I knew this routine. I'd gone through it at enough schools.**

**"Well?" Annabeth prompted. "Go on."**

**So naturally I tripped coming in the door and made a total fool of myself.**

" You always were terribly clumsy" Malcolm said vacantly as I blushed brightly, which I seem to be doing a lot of today.

**There were some snickers from the campers, but none of them said anything.**

**Annabeth announced, "Persephany Jackson, meet cabin eleven."**

**"It's just Percy" I say, hoping no one calls me by my real name.**

**"Regular or undetermined?" somebody asked.**

"That's me," Connor yelled gleefully.

**I didn't know what to say, but Annabeth said, "Undetermined."**

**Everybody groaned. Wow, I sure feel welcome.**

**A guy who was a little older than the rest came forward.**

**"Now, now, campers. That's what we're here for. Welcome, Percy. You can have that spot on the floor, right over there."**

**I blushed when I saw him.**

**The guy was about nineteen, and he looked pretty cute. He was tall and muscular, with short-cropped sandy hair and a friendly smile. He wore an orange tank top, cutoffs, sandals, and a leather necklace with five different-colored clay beads. The only thing unsettling about his appearance was a thick white scar that ran from just beneath his right eye to his jaw, like an old knife slash. But it made him seem tough.**

Nico's gripped tightened around me, reminding me that he hasn't let go.

I glance up at his stony expression and giggle, " Is someone? Jealous?" I whisper, teasing him. The blush that crept onto his face gave me my answer and I grinned triumphantly.

**"This is Luke," Annabeth said, and her voice sounded different somehow. I glanced over and could've sworn she was blushing.**

**She saw me looking, and her expression hardened again. "He's your counselor for now."**

**"For now?" I asked.**

**"You're undetermined," Luke explained patiently. "They don't know what cabin to put you in, so you're here. Cabin eleven takes all newcomers, all visitors. Naturally, we would. Hermes, our patron, is the god of travelers."**

**I looked at the tiny section of floor they'd given me. I had nothing to put there to mark it as my own, no luggage, no clothes, and no sleeping bag. Just the Minotaur's horn. I thought about setting that down, but then I remembered that Hermes was also the god of thieves.**

"That's a really good thing to remember" Katie said.

**I looked around at the campers' faces, some sullen and suspicious, some grinning stupidly, and some eying me.**

**"How long will I be here?" I asked.**

**"Good question," Luke said. "Until you're determined."**

**"How long will that take?"**

**The campers all laughed at me, I pouted a bit.**

**"Come on," Annabeth told me. "I'll show you the volleyball court."**

**"I've already seen it Annabeth."**

Annabeth sighed.

**"Come on." She grabbed my wrist and dragged me outside. I could hear the kids of cabin eleven laughing behind me.**

**When we were a few feet away, Annabeth said, "Jackson, you have to do better than that."**

**"Excuse me?"**

**She rolled her eyes and mumbled under her breath, "I can't believe I thought you were the one."**

**"What's your problem?" I was getting angry now. "All I know is, I kill some bull guy—"**

**"Don't talk like that!" Annabeth told me. "You know how many kids at this camp wish they'd had your chance?"**

**"To get killed?"**

"Yeah, you weren't really making any sense Beth" I told her, cowering when she glared at me for calling her Beth.

**"To fight the Minotaur! What do you think we train for?"**

**I shook my head. "Look, if the thing I fought really was _the _Minotaur, the same one in the stories..."**

**"Yes."**

**"Then there's only one."**

**"Yes."**

**"And he died, like, a gajillion years ago, right? Theseus killed him in the labyrinth. So..."**

**"Monsters don't die, Percy. They can be killed. But they don't die."**

"She just made me more confused" I told Nico in a stage whisper and hid behind him when she gave me another steely look.

**"Oh, thanks. That clears it up."**

**"They don't have souls, like you and me. You can dispel them for a while, maybe even for a whole lifetime if you're lucky. But they are primal forces. Chiron calls them arche types. Eventually, they re-form."**

"Which really sucks for us." Clarisse said.

**I thought about Mrs. Dodds. "You mean if I killed one, accidentally, with a sword—"**

**"The Fur ... I mean, your math teacher. That's right. She's still out there. You just made her very, very mad."**

**"How did you know about Mrs. Dodds?"**

**"You also talk in your sleep."**

Malcolm laughed, " It seems like the party is going on while you're sleeping. Talking and drooling, wonder what's next" he guffawed.

Normally I would laugh, or glare or even blush if someone said that to me. But my emotions were still all over the place because of Drew. Was he insulting me or was he joking?

**"You almost called her something. A Fury? They're Hades' torturers, right?"**

**Annabeth glanced nervously at the ground, as if she expected it to open up and swallow her.**

**"You shouldn't call them by name, even here. We call them the Kindly Ones, if we have to speak of them at all."**

**"Kindly ones? Sweetheart, there's nothing kind about them. Look, is there anything we _can _say without it thundering?" I sounded whiny and bitchy, even to myself, but right then I didn't care. "Why do I have to stay in cabin eleven, anyway? Why is everybody so crowded together? There are plenty of empty bunks right over there."**

"I don't even want to imagine what a god would do if they found out that some random half-blood was sleeping in their cabin" Chris shuddered.

I silently wondered if he was ok, he had been very quiet.

**I pointed to the first few cabins, and Annabeth turned pale. "You don't just choose a cabin, Percy. It depends on who your parents are. Or ... your parent."**

**She stared at me, as if waiting for me to get it.**

**"My mom is Sally Jackson," I said.**

**"She works at the candy store in Grand Central Station. At least, she used to."**

**"I'm sorry about your mom, Percy. But that's not what I mean. I'm talking about your other parent. Your dad."**

**"He's dead to me, I never knew him and I'm not looking forward to."**

" You were really mad, weren't you?" Clarisse asks me.

"Not really mad, per say, just upset" I told her shrugging my shoulders a bit.

**Annabeth sighed. Clearly, she'd had this conversation before with other kids.**

**"Your father's not dead to you, Percy. Give him a chance."**

**"How can you say that? You don't know him do you, why should I give him a chance?"**

**"No, of course not."**

**"Then how can you say—"?**

**"Because I know _you._** **You wouldn't be here if you weren't one of us."**

**"You don't know anything about me Chase, and I'd rather it stay that way."**

" I don't like people, took me this long to get used to having you around" I said after seeing Nico's questioning look.

**"No?" She raised an eyebrow. "I bet you moved around from school to school. I bet you were kicked out of a lot of them."**

**"How—"**

**"Diagnosed with dyslexia. Probably ADHD, too."**

**"What does that have to do with anything Chase?"**

**"Taken together, it's almost a sure sign. The letters float off the page when you read, right? That's because your mind is hardwired for ancient Greek.**

**And the ADHD—you're impulsive, can't sit still in the classroom. That's your battlefield reflex. In a real fight, they'd keep you alive. As for the attention problems, that's because you see too much, Percy, not too little. Your senses are better than a regular mortal's. Of course the teachers want you medicated. Most of them are monsters. They don't want you seeing them for what they are."**

"I hate monster teachers," Travis grumbled.

**"You sound like ... you went through the same thing?"**

"I did." Annabeth mumbled.

**"Most of the kids here did. If you weren't like us, you couldn't have survived the Minotaur, much less the ambrosia and nectar."**

**"Ambrosia and nectar."**

**"The food and drink we were giving you to make you better. That stuff would've killed a normal kid. It would've turned your blood to fire and your bones to sand and you'd be dead. Face it. You're a half-blood."**

**A half-blood.**

**I was reeling with so many questions I didn't know where to start.**

**Then a husky voice yelled, "Well! A newbie!"**

"Yeah, sorry about that" Clarisse said sheepishly.

My eyebrows shot up, Clarisse was... Apologizing?

**I looked over. The big girl from the ugly red cabin was sauntering toward us. She had three other girls behind her, all big and mean looking like her, all wearing camo jackets.**

**"Clarisse," Annabeth sighed. "Why don't you go polish your spear or something?"**

**"Sure, Miss Princess," the big girl said. "So I can run you through with it Friday night."**

**_''Erre es korakas!"_** **Annabeth said, which I somehow under stood was Greek for 'Go to the crows!' though I had a feeling it was a worse curse than it sounded.**

"It is" Chiron said, looking at Annabeth disapprovingly.

**"You don't stand a chance."**

**"We'll pulverize you," Clarisse said, but her eye twitched. Perhaps she wasn't sure she could follow through on the threat. She turned toward me. "Who's this little runt?"**

**"Persephany-"Percy!" I interrupted- Jackson," Annabeth said, "Meet Clarisse, Daughter of Ares."**

**I blinked. "Like ... the war god?"**

"No like the god of flowers" Nico said sarcastically.

I blushed and nudged him hard.

**Clarisse sneered. "You got a problem with that?"**

**"No," I said, recovering my wits. "It explains the bad smell."**

**Clarisse growled. "We got an initiation ceremony for newbies, Prissy."**

**"Percy."**

**"Whatever. Come on, I'll show you."**

**"Clarisse—" Annabeth tried to say.**

**"Stay out of it, wise girl."**

**Annabeth looked pained, but she did stay out of it,**

Malcolm glared at her, "You should have helped her," he said angrily.

Annabeth looked down abashed.

"Doesn't matter, I didn't want her help" I told him.

**And I didn't really want her help.**

"See?" I said triumphantly.

Quite a few people rolled their eyes at me.

**I was the new kid. I had to learn to deal with people by myself.**

**I handed Annabeth my minotaur horn and got ready to fight, but before I knew it, Clarisse had me by the neck and was dragging me toward a cinder-block building that I knew immediately was the bathroom.**

**I was kicking and punching. I'd been in plenty of fights before, but this big girl Clarisse had hands like iron. She dragged me into the girls' bathroom.**

"Must that really be your initiation?" I pleaded to Clarisse.

She smirked, "Course, newbies gotta learn not to mess with Ares," she said proudly.

**There was a line of toilets on one side and a line of shower stalls down the other. It smelled just like any public bathroom, and I was thinking—as much as I _could _think with Clarisse ripping my hair out—that if this place belonged to the gods, they should've been able to afford classier johns.**

Nico snorted.

**Clarisse's friends were all laughing, and I was trying to find the strength I'd used to fight the Minotaur, but it just wasn't there.**

**"Like she's 'Big Three' material," Clarisse said as she pushed me toward one of the toilets. "Yeah, right. Minotaur probably fell over laughing, she was so stupid looking."**

**Her friends snickered.**

**Annabeth stood in the corner, watching through her fingers.**

"Then I needed your help," I told Annabeth, smiling.

She laughed.

**Clarisse bent me over on my knees and started pushing my head toward the toilet bowl. It reeked like rusted pipes and, well, like what goes into toilets. I strained to keep my head up. I was looking at the scummy water, thinking, I will not go into that. I won't.**

**Then something happened. I felt a tug in the pit of my stomach. I heard the plumbing rumble, the pipes shudder. Clarisse's grip on my hair loosened. Water shot out of the toilet, making an arc straight over my head, and the next thing I knew, I was sprawled on the bathroom tiles with Clarisse screaming behind me.**

"That's amazing" Katie said, awe-struck.

I flipped my hair and grinned smugly.

**I turned just as water blasted out of the toilet again; hitting Clarisse straight in the face so hard it pushed her down onto her butt.**

**The water stayed on her like the spray from a fire hose, pushing her backward into a shower stall.**

**She struggled, gasping, and her friends started coming toward her. But then the other toilets exploded, too, and six more streams of toilet water blasted them back. The showers acted up, too, and together all the fixtures sprayed the camouflage girls right out of the bathroom, spinning them around like pieces of garbage being washed away.**

"Remind me again not to get on your bad side" Nico said, laughing at peoples surprised and shocked faces.

I blushed, maybe I overreacted slightly.

**As soon as they were out the door, I felt the tug in my gut lessen, and the water shut off as quickly as it had started.**

**The entire bathroom was flooded. Annabeth hadn't been spared.**

" Hehe, oops?" I say, half hiding behind Nico, not wanting to witness Annabeth's wrath.

She smirked when she say me hiding, obviously liking my fear.

**She was dripping wet, but she hadn't been pushed out the door. She was standing in exactly the same place, staring at me in shock. I looked down and realized I was sitting in the only dry spot in the whole room. There was a circle of dry floor around me. I didn't have one drop of water on my clothes. Nothing.**

"Without a doubt Poseidon's daughter" Malcolm said grinning at me.

**I stood up, my legs shaky.**

**Annabeth said, "How did you..."**

**"I don't know."**

**We walked to the door. Outside, Clarisse and her friends were sprawled in the mud, and a bunch of other campers had gathered around to gawk. Clarisse's hair was flattened across her face. Her camouflage jacket was sopping and she smelled like sewage. She gave me a look of absolute hatred. "You are dead, new girl. You are totally dead."**

**I probably should have let it go, but I said, "You want to gargle with toilet water again, Clarisse? Close your mouth."**

Clarisse glared at everyone that started to laugh.

**Her friends had to hold her back. They dragged her toward cabin five, while the other campers made way to avoid her flailing feet.**

**Annabeth stared at me. I couldn't tell whether she was just grossed out or angry with me for dousing her.**

**"What?" I demanded. "What are you thinking?"**

**"I'm thinking," she said, "that I want you on my team for capture the flag."**

"Well... See you at the bonfire!" Silena chirped before bounding off to her cabin.


	7. Chapter 7

Sorry! I forgot to update for like two weeks. I've got many excuses but the only valid one is writer's block. Because I feel guilty and bored, this chapter is gonna be a bit longer. And maybe, just possibly, there might be some romance *gasp*! Special thanks to everyone how added this to their favorites and alerts and to everyone that reviewed. By the way, I need a beta. So if anyone is willing please PM me. And if anyone has ideas of how they'd like this story to go I'm up to considering some.

Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson. If I did, Luke wouldn't have been evil and Annabeth wouldn't be so bitchy.

* * *

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

* * *

I watched her skip away, feeling quite amused. She was like a little ball of energy sometimes. I looked away from her retreating form, to find Nico staring at me. I blushed when I saw him watching me, with a sort of calculating look.

"Do I have something on my face?" I asked him patting my face.

He smiled and shook his head, "Lets go," he said quietly.

He got up and offered me his hand. I took it and stood up, ignoring the Aphrodite table's knowing looks. We walked out of the mess hall and he led me to the beach, my hand still clutched in his. We sat down on the near the water and took of our shoes, so that every time the tide came in, it wet our feet. After a few minutes of silence, I looked over at Nico.

"You ok? You've been quiet" I ask him, worried.

"I should be asking you, ever since Drew decided to be a bitch you've been very quiet too. You know that she was lying right?" he looked over at me as I bit my lip.

He sighed deeply and enveloped me in a hug.

"What did I ever do to her? Why does she hate and insult me all the time?" I whispered, confused.

"I don't know Annie, but she's just being mean and trying to bring you down" he told me, rubbing my back softly.

"Nico, do I really have boring eyes and to pale skin? I already knew I had scars but do I really need to cover them up with makeup?" I asked him.

"Of course not Percy don't believe that for a second. You're the prettiest girl I know." he smiled at me and ended the hug.

I wanted to believe him, I really did. But what if he was just saying that because he's my best friend. He noticed the look on my face and rolled his eyes.

"No I am not just saying that" Nico said nudging me with a small smile.

I leant against him and placed my head on his shoulder. He put his arm around me and rested his head on mine. I made a quick impulsive decision.

"Lets practice" I said, standing up.

Nico raised an eyebrow before standing up and walking with me to the arena. When we got to the arena I took my sword out of my pocket and picked a dummy. I viciously slashed through its stomach, tearing the right orange camp T-shirt to shreds. I kept stabbing the dummy hard, wanting to let out my anger from Drew, on this dummy. In seconds it was in pieces on the floor and I moved on to the next one. As I slash the poor dummy to bits I felt a hand on my shoulder. I quickly turned around with my sword raised to find Nico's hands up in surrender.

"I think the dummies need a moment to rebuild their army" he teased me, gesturing to the ruined dummies.

I blushed, "Oops" I say, slightly abashed.

"Fight against me" Nico suggested. I raised an eyebrow and smirked.

"You sure? Cause we don't wanna ruin such a pretty face by letting it get slashed with a sword, do we" I asked him, cocking my head to the side and grinning.

He glared and struck at me. I easily deflected him and started to fight back. After five minutes he disarmed me and knocked me over. My sword was pointed at my throat.

"I win," he said smugly.

He leant down to help me up before I swiped my foot around and hit his legs, making him fall. Our swords dropped from his hands and clanged to the ground. I picked mine up and positioned it at his chest.

"I think I won that one." I said smirking. He pouted, got up and grabbed his sword.

"Good game" he said, sounding upset.

I rolled my eyes at him, "Come on, the bonfire's about to start." I said, walking away from the arena and heading to my cabin.

"Where are you going" Nico asked me as I walked past the bonfire area, away from the early campers.

"My cabin, coming?" I ask him. There's a rule that two people of the opposite gender can't be in the cabin alone unless they were both a child of the same god or goddess. Not many people actually follow that rule though, so it's pretty much useless.

"Why not" he shrugged and followed me.

We walked into my cabin and Nico sat down on my bed. My cabin's been quite lonely without Tyson here; I really hope I can see him soon. He's still working with my father under water. He IM's me once in a while, but he's always too busy to talk for long.

"Why did you wanna come here again?" Nico asked me.

"You don't really think I'm taking my sword to the bonfire do you?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.

"That's why we came to your cabin? Couldn't you have just kept it in your pocket for another hour?" Nico asked annoyed.

I rolled my eyes at him and put my sword away.

"You are the one who agreed to come you know" I told him, amused by his annoyance.

He stuck his tongue out at me.

"How mature" I chuckled.

I decided I was gonna change my shirt. It was gross and sweaty and I was _not _going to stay outside in a sweaty shirt. I found a big dark blue shirt and went to the bathroom. As I started to change, I realized that it wasn't my shirt. It was Nico's. Why his shirt was in my room I had no idea. It's not like it really mattered anyways. With a shrug I put it on and it hug down over my black track pants. I walked out of the bathroom and Nico looked at me strangely.

"Why do you have my shirt," he asked, clearly curious about how it got in here.

"Who knows." I said with a shrug.

He furrowed his eyebrows in concentration. I think he was trying to remember how it got in here.

"Come on, we're going to be late for the bonfire" I told him, walking out of the room.

He followed me out of the cabin and to the campfire.

"You look good in my shirt" he said grinning.

I'm pretty sure he was teasing me, so I punched his shoulder lightly. He pouted in mock-pain. I rolled my eyes at him again. I seem to be doing that a lot today. I searched for an empty seat, as we were a bit late. Not late enough for them to start, but late enough to have the best seats taken.

"Percy! Come over here" Malcolm shouted, waving his arm so that I could see where he was.

I smiled at Nico and toke his hand, leading him to where Malcolm was. As we approached him I groaned. There was only enough space for one of us to sit. Nico, seeing where I was looking, said that he would sit somewhere else.

"Don't be stupid Nico" I scolded him.

Nico and I always sit together. No matter where we are, we find seats next to each other. We continued to walk until we were in front of Malcolm. I flashed a smile at Malcolm and pushed Nico onto the log. Then I sat down one the grass and leant against Nico's legs.

"You don't have to sit on the ground," Nico said, motioning to get up.

I shook my head, " It's alright, and it's the only way we can sit together." I told him.

"I can sit on the ground instead," Nico offered.

I smiled at his kindness but shook my head.

"It doesn't matter, I'm fine" I assured him.

"He's right Percy. You shouldn't be sitting on the ground." Malcolm said, agreeing with Nico.

"Then where do you suppose I sit" I asked them, annoyed that they wouldn't just leave me alone.

I heard Nico sigh and then felt hands on my side, lifting me up. I let out a shriek of surprise when I was plopped on Nico's lap. I turned my head to glare at him but he just grinned at me.

"You really don't understand t he whole 'fine on the ground thing' do you" it wasn't exactly a question, more like a statement.

He just continued to smile at me. I rolled my eyes and leaned. Annabeth, who was sitting on the other side of Malcolm, smirked. I stuck my tongue out at her and glared, though the sight was less threatening seeing how I was on Nico's lap.

"You're getting a lot of attention from Nico today Percy" Annabeth teased.

I could practically _feel_ Nico blush. I decided to tease him a bit more.

"Of course Beth! Didn't we tell you? Nico and I have secretly been dating for months! It seems like he's not able to hide it anymore though. Isn't the right Nico?" I asked, flipping my hair to see his face and accidently hitting Malcolm.

I laughed when I saw his expression. He was blushing, had a confused look on his face and wouldn't look me in the eyes. He looked like he was about to respond when Chiron called out for attention. Fortunately for Nico, Chiron just gave him an excuse to not say anything.

"I have changed my mind. We shall read one more of this book. Mr. D seems to think that the faster we get through this, the better," Chiron announced.

The smile that had crept on to my face quickly disappeared. Great, just great, more reading of my life story. I pouted while Chiron asked for volunteers.

"I might as well!" said a strong voice.

I looked over at Nico confused, I recognized that voice, and I couldn't place it. I turned back and saw someone totally unexpected. There, in all his glory, was my father.

"Lord Poseidon! What an honor it is for you to be here! No offense meant, but is there a reason you are here?" asked Chiron, looking slightly ruffled.

Dad smiled, "We, the gods, have been watching and decided that this is an excellent chance to learn about our children" he answered.

As if on cue, the rest of the Olympians appeared. Even Hades, even though he looked like he'd rather be anywhere but here.

"That's fantastic! Unfortunately, we have no more space, but we can take some chairs from th-" Chiron started, before seeing Zeus snap his fingers and the logs growing.

"Well that settles that problem" Chiron smiled.

Dad grinned and caught my eye and smiling even bigger, then dropping fast. I frowned, what was wrong? He seemed to be glaring at something behind me and I turned around, curious to see what he was looking at, only to be faced with Nico's chest. I turned back and furrowed my eyebrows before it clicked. I was still sitting on Nico's lap, a boy that my dad didn't like. Oops. I slowly slid off Nico's lap and was sitting properly by the time my dad came over with the book. He sat down beside me and glared at Nico, while the other gods were deciding where to sit. Hades came and sat next to Nico.

"Hi daddy!" I said smiling.

It's not everyday that you see your godly parent. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Nico greet his father.

"Hello Percy. Nico." Poseidon said, ending on a cold note.

"Hello Lord Poseidon" Nico said nervously.

"Hi uncle Hades!" I grinned.

He looked a bit uncomfortable, "Hello Percy" he said with a small nod.

I smiled at looked over at dad, waiting for him to begin.

Dad glared at Nico a bit longer before beginning.

"**MY DINNER GOES UP IN SMOKE" **dad read.

"What's with the weird title?" Apollo asked.

"It's Percy dad, with her, weird is normal" Will said, looking a bit pleased that his father was sitting beside him.

I shrugged, couldn't really argue with the truth can I?

**Word of the bathroom incident spread immediately. Wherever I went, campers pointed at me and murmured something about toilet water. Or maybe they were just staring at Annabeth, who was still pretty much dripping wet.**

"What did you do?" my father asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Nothing really. Just used my kickass ninja water skills" I said smugly.

Poseidon grinned, "That's my girl" he praised.

**She showed me a few more places: the metal shop (where kids were forging their own swords), the arts-and-crafts room (where satyrs were sandblasting a giant marble statue of a goat-man),**

Grover's eye twitched

**and the climbing wall, which actually consisted of two facing walls that shook violently, dropped boulders, sprayed lava, and clashed together if you didn't get to the top fast enough.**

"I love the climbing wall." I exclaimed.

Malcolm snorted, "Of course you do. You hardly burn even if the lava hits you. Plus, you're an adrenaline junkie" he stated.

I pouted, "I am so not an adrenaline junkie! I just like the fact that if you're even a second late, you're in risk of burning yourself. It's a challenge." I said, proud of my logic.

"_Suuure_, whatever helps you sleep at night Annie" Nico said, patting my arm, as if giving in to an annoying five year old that wants a cookie.

I huffed and folded my arms.

**Finally we returned to the canoeing lake, where the trail led back to the cabins.**

**"I've got training to do," Annabeth said flatly. "Dinner's at seven-thirty. Just follow your cabin to the mess hall."**

**"Annabeth, I'm sorry you got wet. I wasn't exactly aiming for you.**

**"Whatever."**

**"Fine then, don't take my apology. That was a waste an apology."**

**She glared at me,**

Like the same way she was right now.

"It's true though! I rarely apologize so early in a relationship! Only if I actually care what happens to you, and that doesn't happen a lot." I said, annoyed that she didn't take me seriously.

"That is true. She doesn't like apologizing. She doesn't like owing others. Even if it's just an apology" Nico said, helping me out for once in the past hour.

"Ha! See!" I exclaimed, glad someone actually listens to me.

Dad rolled his eyes and continued to read.

**And I glared right back at her. I wasn't **_**my **_**fault. I don't know how I made water shoot out of the bathroom fixtures. I don't understand how. But the toilets had responded to me. I had become one with the plumbing.**

**"You need to talk to the Oracle," Annabeth said.**

I shuddered, the oracle was bat-shit creppy.

**"Who?"**

**"Not who. What.** **The Oracle. I'll ask Chiron."**

"**That explains everything"**

**I looked into the lake, wishing somebody would give me a straight answer for once.**

**I wasn't expecting anybody to be looking back at me from the bottom, so my heart skipped a beat when I noticed two teenage girls sitting cross-legged at the base of the pier, about twenty feet below.**

"Naiads. They scare me." Nico said, looking a bit embarrassed.

"You're scared of Naiads? Why?" Dad asked, looking quite surprised.

"They somehow found out that I was a son of Hades and tried to drown me" Nico said, blushing.

"They what?" I asked him, furious.

"Ah it's alright Annie, no need to freak out" he assured me.

"We'll see about that. I think I should have a talk with the Naiads" I said, narrowing my eyes.

He sighed but didn't argue.

**They wore blue jeans and shimmering green T-shirts, and their brown hair floated loose around their shoulders as minnows darted in and out. They smiled and waved as if I were a long-lost friend.**

**I didn't know what else to do. I waved back.**

"**Those are Naiads. A type of water nymph."**

**"Naiads… That's it. I want to go home now."**

**Annabeth frowned. "Don't you get it, Percy? You **_**are **_**home. This is the only safe place on earth for kids like us."**

**"You mean, mentally disturbed kids?"**

"Did you just call us mentally disturbed?" Annabeth asked.

"Um, no?" I more asked then said.

She rolled her eyes.

**"I mean **_**not human. **_**Not totally human, anyway. Half-human."**

"That made me feel like some sort of hybrid" I told Annabeth.

She snorted, "That's what you get for calling me mentally disturbed".

I pouted.

**"Half-human and half-what?"**

**"I think you know."**

**I didn't want to admit it, but I was afraid I did. I felt a tingling in my limbs, a sensation I sometimes felt when my mom talked about my dad.**

**"God," I said. "Half-god."**

**Annabeth nodded. "Your father isn't dead, Percy. He's one of the Olympians."**

"Sadly, it had to be this god" Athena said, gesturing to Poseidon.

Dad glared at her, looking like he was about to retroit when I stepped in.

"Dad, it's not worth it. No matter what you say, she's not gonna stop. Please read," I told him, not wanting my annoyance to show on my face.

He looked at me then continued.

**"That's ... crazy."**

**"Is it? What's the most common thing gods did in the old stories? They ran around falling in love with humans and having kids with them. Do you think they've changed their habits in the last few millennia?"**

**"But those are just—" I almost said **_**myths **_**again. Then I remembered Chiron's warning that in two thousand years, **_**I **_**might be considered a myth.**

**"But if all the kids here are half-gods—"**

**"Demigods," Annabeth said. "That's the official term. Or half-bloods."**

**"Then who's your parent?"**

**"Cabin six."**

**"Meaning?"**

**Annabeth straightened. "Athena. Goddess of wisdom and battle."**

**Okay, I thought. Why not?**

**"And my dad?"**

"Why did you think I knew?" Annabeth asked me.

"Daughter of Athena. Sorry, I was being stereotypical. Thought that because you were the daughter of the goddess of wisdom, you might have had an idea." I replied, shrugging.

**"Undetermined," Annabeth said, "like I told you before. Nobody knows."**

**"Except my mother. She knew."**

**"Maybe not, Percy. Gods don't always reveal their identities."**

**"My dad would have. He loved her."**

"Awww." Aphrodite cooed "How sweet!.

"It's almost as cute as Percy and Nico's secret relationship" Silena shrieked.

You could hear a pin drop. That's how quiet it was.

"Um Silena? Nico and I aren't actually dating. It was a joke to embarrass him." I told her, blushing at the fact that everyone was staring at us.

"That's what you think, Percy. You guys are like, meant for each other. I mean, you know what his favorite color is, he knows your favorite flowers. You both have each others birthday and phone number memorized! You can't tell me you aren't meant for each other" Silena exclaimed.

I blink, then I blinked again. She was basing our so-called "romance" over us knowing things about each other?

"Oh my gods! I can so see it! Little brown haired and greened eyed babies!" Aphrodite squealed.

"Lets just continue," I told my dad, who was glaring at Aphrodite.

**Annabeth gave me a cautious look. She didn't want to burst my bubble.**

**"Maybe you're right. Maybe he'll send a sign. That's the only way to know for sure: your father has to send you a sign claiming you as his son. Sometimes it happens."**

**"You mean sometimes it doesn't?"**

The gods looked around at their children guiltily.

**Annabeth ran her palm along the rail. "The gods are busy. They have a lot of kids and they don't always ... Well, sometimes they don't care about us, Percy. They ignore us."**

"Annabeth, did you really feel that way?" Athena asked, astonished.

Annabeth shrugged, "Yeah I guess. It's one of the hardest parts of being a demi-god. If you're just a normal kid, it's easier to understand why one of your parents aren't around. When you're a halfblood it's not. We feel like since you guys are immortal, that you might actually have time for us."

Athena looked heartbroken and speechless.

After an awkward moment of silence, dad began to read again.

**I thought about some of the kids I'd seen in the Hermes cabin, teenagers who looked sullen and depressed, as if they were waiting for a call that would never come. I'd known kids like that at Yancy Academy, shuffled off to boarding school by rich parents who didn't have the time to deal with them. But gods should behave better.**

"You really should. You'd think that after all the wars you guys have seen you'd see that most of the demi-gods on the Titan's side, are kids who feel neglected by their parent. The Titan's feed on their doubts of the gods to turn them to their side. Then once their on the Titan's side, their hatred and anger at their parent developes into hatred for all of the gods." I told them.

Gods should know better, this law saying that they can't interfere with their kid's life is stupid. That's why every year, the amount of halfbloods who still care diminishes.

"How dare you speak to us like that! It is not our buisness what idiotic decisions our children make!" Zeus shouted, making lightning crackle.

"That's where you're wrong. It _is _your buissness if your kids decide to join the Titans, because most of the time it's your fault. You just showed everyone the main reason why there's so many demi-gods on the Titans side. It's because you don't care!" I retorted, getting even more upset as this conversation progressed.

"She is right. While we have been doing what we can as gods, we're not doing anything as parents. We are the main reason why there is hardly any demi-gods that are still on the side of the gods." Lady Demeter said.

I smiled at her, grateful for her help. This whole tirade could not be new to them. Someone else must of pointed this out too them before. I just hope that the more they hear it, the more they'll understand. Plus, having a goddess on my side should help.

"Keep reading daddy" I told Poseidon.

**"So I'm stuck here," I said. "That's it? For the rest of my life?"**

**"It depends," Annabeth said. "Some campers only stay the summer. If you're a child of Aphrodite or Demeter,**

"Aww Beth! You thought that I looked like a daughter of Aphrodite? How sweet!" I cooed at Annabeth.

She grinned at me, "Of course Percy! But maybe you should ask Nico that question, I'm positive he'll say yes" she laughed.

"Well Nico? Do I look like a daughter of Aphrodite?" I asked, teasing him a bit.

Nico blushed and shot a short, nervous look at my father.

"Umm, o-of course Annie." He stuttered.

"Aww, so cute!" Silena squealed, making Nico blush even more.

Annabeth and I laughed. Making Nico embarrassed was so much.

**you're probably not a real powerful force. **

"Ouch" muttered Aphrodite and Demeter.

Annabeth smiled sheepishly.

**The monsters might ignore you, so you can get by with a few months of summer training and live in the mortal world the rest of the year. But for some of us, it's too dangerous to leave. We're year-rounders. In the mortal world, we attract monsters. They sense us. They come to challenge us. Most of the time, they'll ignore us until we're old enough to cause trouble—about ten or eleven years old, but after that, most demigods either make their way here, or they get killed off. A few manage to survive in the outside world and become famous. Believe me, if I told you the names, you'd know them.**

"Like George Washington!" I exclaimed.

"Yes, like George Washington" Annabeth smiled, clearly glad that I actually looked something up.

**Some don't even realize they're demigods. But very, very few are like that."**

**"So monsters can't get in here?"**

**Annabeth shook her head. "Not unless they're intentionally stocked in the woods or specially summoned by somebody on the inside."**

**"Why would anybody want to summon a monster?"**

**"Practice fights. Practical jokes."**

**"Practical jokes?"**

The Hermes cabin chuckled evily, causing everyone sitting next to them to scoot away.

**"The point is, the borders are sealed to keep mortals and monsters out. From the outside, mortals look into the valley and see nothing unusual, just a strawberry farm."**

**"So ... you're a year-rounder?"**

**Annabeth nodded. From under the collar of her T-shirt she pulled a leather necklace with five clay beads of different colors. It was just like Luke's, except Annabeth's also had a big gold ring strung on it, like a college ring.**

**"I've been here since I was seven," she said. "Every August, on the last day of summer session, you get a bead for surviving another year. I've been here longer than most of the counselors, and they're all in college."**

**"Why did you come so young?"**

"Gods, do you have to ask personal questions?" Annabeth asked, annoyed.

**She twisted the ring on her necklace. "None of your business."**

**"Oh kay then." I stood there for a minute in uncomfortable silence. "So ... I could just walk out of here right now if I wanted to?"**

**"It would be suicide, but you could, with Mr. D's or Chiron's permission. But they wouldn't give permission until the end of the summer session unless..."**

**"Unless what?"**

**"You were granted a quest. But that hardly ever happens. The last time …"**

Hermes shuddered slightly. Luke's quest was a disaster.

**Her voice trailed off. I could tell from her tone that the last time hadn't gone well.**

**"Back in the sick room," I said, "when you were feeding me that stuff—"**

**"Ambrosia."**

**"Yeah sure. You asked me something about the summer solstice."**

**Annabeth's shoulders tensed. "So you **_**do **_**know some thing?"**

**"Well... no, not really. Back at my old school, I overheard Grover and Chiron talking about it. Grover mentioned the summer solstice. He said something like we didn't have much time, because of the deadline. What's that suppose to mean?"**

**She clenched her fists.**

**"I wish I knew. Chiron and the satyrs, they know, but they won't tell me. Something is wrong in Olympus, something pretty major. Last time I was there, everything seemed so **_**normal**_**."**

**"You've been to Olympus?"**

**"Some of us year-rounders—Luke and Clarisse and I and a few others—we took a field trip during winter solstice. That's when the gods have their big annual council."**

**"But... how did you get there?"**

"The Long Island Railroad." Annabeth said.

"I know Beth, you already told me." I chuckled.

"Oops" Annabeth blushed.

**"The Long Island Railroad,**

"Don't repeat yourself Annabeth." Conner said.

"Shut up Conner" I said, filing my fingernails with my sword.

Conner obviously saw the threat laying underneath that simple sentence because he stopped talking.

**of course. You get off at Penn Station. Empire State Building, special elevator to the six hundredth floor." She looked at me like she was sure I must know this already.**

"Why would you expect her to know that?" Katie asked.

"I don't know. I think I forgot she was new for a few seconds." Annabeth replied sheepishly.

**"You **_**are **_**a New Yorker, right?"**

**"Oh, sure." As far as I knew, there were only a hundred and two floors in the Empire State Building, but I decided not to point that out.**

**"Right after we visited," Annabeth continued, "the weather got weird, as if the gods had started fighting. A couple of times since, I've overheard satyrs talking. The best I can figure out is that something important was stolen. And if it isn't returned by summer solstice, there's going to be trouble. When you came, I was hoping ... I mean— Athena can get along with just about anybody, except for Ares. And of course she's got the rivalry with Poseidon.**

"Of course. Catching him in my temple with his girlfriend was very disrespectful! And we were competing for Athens. Of course we don't get along" Athena said, sticking her nose in the air.

I shared a look with Annabeth and we both rolled our eyes.

**But, I mean, aside from that, I thought we could work together. I thought you might know something."**

**I shook my head. I kinda wished I could help her, but I felt too hungry and tired and mentally overloaded to ask any more questions. Or do anything for that matter.**

**"I've got to get a quest," Annabeth muttered to her self. "I'm **_**not **_**too young. If they would just tell me the problem …"**

"I hate how they expect you to help when you have no idea what's going on" I huffed.

Many of the campers nodded their agreement.

**I could smell barbecue smoke coming from somewhere nearby. Annabeth must've heard my stomach growl. She told me to go on, she'd catch me later. I left her on the pier, tracing her finger across the rail as if drawing a battle plan.**

**Back at cabin eleven, everybody was talking and horsing around, waiting for dinner. For the first time, I noticed that a lot of the campers had similar features: sharp noses, upturned eyebrows, mischievous smiles. They were the kind of kids that teachers would peg as troublemakers. Those must be the actual Hermes kids.**

"We should really build some new cabins for the undetermined. It's not fair to the Hermes kids to have to share their cabin with others who don't belong there" Nico pointed out.

"We should. That's a good idea," Chiron said thoughtfully.

**Thankfully, nobody paid much attention to me as I walked over to my spot on the floor and plopped down with my minotaur horn.**

**The counselor, Luke, came over. He had the Hermes family resemblance, too. It was marred by that scar on his right cheek, but his smile was intact. I could tell why Annabeth blushed when she saw him. He's cute.**

"You thought he was cute?" Nico asked me, looking disappointed.

"A bit" I admitted.

He frowned.

**"Found you a sleeping bag," he said. "And here, I stole you some toiletries from the camp store."**

**I couldn't tell if he was kidding about the stealing part.**

"He probably was serious." Conner said.

"We children of Hermes never lie about thievery and mischief." Travis said.

"Yeah!" Hermes cheered.

**I said, "Thanks."**

**"No prob." Luke sat next to me, pushed his back against the wall. "Tough first day?"**

**"I don't belong here," I said. "I don't even believe in gods."**

"Hey!" Dad pouted.

"Hehe, sorry daddy" I said sheepishly.

**"Yeah," he said. "That's how we all started. Once you start believing in them? It doesn't get any easier."**

That surprised me, this doesn't sound like Luke.

**The bitterness in his voice surprised me, because Luke seemed like a pretty easygoing guy. He looked like he could handle just about anything.**

**"So your dad is Hermes?" I asked.**

**Luke took out his knife. For a second I thought he was gonna stab me or something, but he just scraped the mud off of his sandel.**

**"Yeah. Hermes."**

**"The wing-footed messenger guy."**

Hermes huffed, "Wing-footed messenger guy? Really?"

I grinned abashedly.

**"That's him. Messengers. Medicine. Travelers, merchants, thieves. Anybody who uses the roads. That's why you're here, enjoying cabin eleven's hospitality. Hermes isn't picky about who he sponsors."**

**I don't think Luke meant to call me a nobody. He just had a lot on his mind.**

**"You ever meet your dad?" I asked.**

**"Once."**

**I waited, thinking that if he wanted to tell me, he'd tell me. Apparently, he didn't. I wondered if the story had any thing to do with how he got his scar.**

"It did" Hermes said sadly.

**Luke looked up and managed a smile. "Don't worry about it, Percy. The campers here, they're mostly good people. After all, we're extended family, right? We take care of each other. Watch out for each other."**

**He seemed to understand how lost I felt, and I was grateful for that, because an older guy like him—even if he was a counselor—should steered clear of an uncool middle-schooler like me. But Luke had welcomed me into the cabin. He'd even stolen me some toiletries, which was the nicest thing anybody had done for me all day. I decided to ask him my last big question, the one that had been bothering me all afternoon. "Clarisse, from Ares, was joking about me being 'Big Three' material. Then Annabeth ... twice, she said I might be 'the one.' She said I should talk to the Oracle. What was that all about?"**

**Luke folded his knife. "I hate prophecies."**

"Don't we all" Nico muttered.

**"What do you mean?"**

**His face twitched around the scar. "Let's just say I messed things up for everybody else.**

**The last two years, ever since my trip to the Garden of the Hesperides went sour, Chiron hasn't allowed any more quests. Annabeth's been dying to get out into the world. She pestered Chiron so much he finally told her he already knew her fate. He'd had a prophecy from the Oracle. He wouldn't tell her the whole thing, but he said Annabeth wasn't destined to go on a quest yet. She had to wait until...somebody special came to the camp."**

**"Somebody special?"**

"Nah, not that special. After all, all I had to do was what until you got here" she said, teasing me.

I did the most mature thing I could do at the moment. I stuck my tongue out at her.

**"Don't worry about it, Seph," Luke said. "Annabeth wants to think every new camper who comes through here is the omen she's been waiting for. Now, come on, it's dinnertime."**

**Seph? I was here for like two hours and I already got a nickname? Cool!**

**Suddenly a horn blew in the distance. Somehow, I knew it was a conch shell, even though I'd never heard one before.**

**Luke yelled, "Eleven, fall in!"**

**The whole cabin, about twenty of us, filed into the commons yard. We lined up in order of seniority, so of course I was dead last. Campers came from the other cabins, too, except for the three empty cabins at the end, and cabin eight, which had looked normal in the daytime, but was now starting to glow silver as the sun went down.**

"Artemis's cabin" Malcolm mumbled.

I love Lady Artemis' cabin, it's so pretty! And the way it glows is amazing.

**We marched up the hill to the mess hall pavilion. Satyrs joined us from the meadow. Naiads emerged from the canoeing lake. A few other girls came out of the woods— and when I say out of the woods, I mean **_**straight **_**out of the woods. I saw one girl, about nine or ten years old, melt from the side of a maple tree and come skipping up the hill.**

**In all, there were maybe a hundred campers, a few dozen satyrs, and a dozen assorted wood nymphs and naiads.**

"Like Juniper! I actually haven't seen June in a while. Maybe we should visit her tomorrow and invite her to read with us" I told Nico.

He shrugged, "Sure, why not?" he said.

**At the pavilion, torches blazed around the marble columns. A central fire burned in a bronze brazier the size of a bathtub. Each cabin had its own table, covered in white cloth trimmed in purple. Four of the tables were empty, but cabin eleven's was way overcrowded. I had to squeeze on to the edge of a bench with half my butt hanging off.**

"We didn't need to know that." Annabeth muttered.

I grinned and winked at her.

**I saw Grover sitting at table twelve with Mr. D, a few satyrs, and a couple of plump blond boys who looked just like Mr. D. Chiron stood to one side, the picnic table being way too small for a centaur.**

**Annabeth sat at table six with a bunch of serious-looking athletic kids, all with her gray eyes and honey-blond hair.**

**Clarisse sat behind me at Ares's table. She'd apparently gotten over being hosed down, because she was laughing and belching right alongside her friends.**

**Finally, Chiron pounded his hoof against the marble floor of the pavilion, and everybody fell silent. He raised a glass. "To the gods!"**

**Everybody else raised their glasses. "To the gods!"**

"Mwahah! To us!" Poseidon cheered.

I scooted away from my father.

**Wood nymphs came forward with platters of food: grapes, apples, strawberries, cheese, fresh bread, and yes, barbecue! My glass was empty, but Luke said, "Speak to it. Whatever you want—nonalcoholic, of course."**

**I said, "Cherry Coke."**

**The glass filled with sparkling caramel liquid.**

**Then I had an idea. "**_**Blue **_**Cherry Coke."**

**The soda turned a violent shade of cobalt.**

**I took a cautious sip. Perfect.**

**I drank a toast to my mother.**

Nico gave me a small smile.

**She's not gone, I told myself. Not permanently, anyway. She's in the Underworld. And if that's a real place, then someday...**

**"Here you go, Seph," Luke said, handing me a platter of smoked brisket.**

**I loaded my plate and was about to take a big bite when I noticed everybody getting up, carrying their plates toward the fire in the center of the pavilion.**

**I wondered if they were going for dessert or something.**

"Yep, that's what we're doing." Conner said sarcastically.

I glared at him.

**"Come on," Luke told me.**

**As I got closer, I saw that everyone was taking a portion of their meal and dropping it into the fire, the ripest straw berry, the juiciest slice of beef, the warmest, most buttery roll.**

**Luke murmured in my ear, "Burnt offerings for the gods. They like the smell."**

**"You're kidding."**

**His look warned me not to take this lightly, but I couldn't help wondering why an immortal, all-powerful being would like the smell of burning food.**

"When you put it that way it sounds stupid," Apollo pouted.

**Luke approached the fire, bowed his head, and tossed in a cluster of fat red grapes. "Hermes."**

**I was next.**

**I wished I knew what god's name to say.**

**Finally, I made a silent plea. **_**Whoever you are, tell me. Please.**_

**I scraped a big slice of brisket into the flames.**

**When I caught a whiff of the smoke, I didn't gag.**

**It smelled nothing like burning food. It smelled of hot chocolate and fresh-baked brownies, hamburgers on the grill and wildflowers, and a hundred other good things that shouldn't have gone well together, but did. I could almost believe the gods could live off that smoke.**

**When everybody had returned to their seats and finished eating their meals, Chiron pounded his hoof again for our attention.**

**Mr. D got up with a huge sigh. "Yes, I suppose I'd better say hello to all you brats. Well, hello. Our activities director, Chiron, says the next capture the flag is Friday. Cabin five presently holds the laurels."**

"Not for long bitches!" I yelled, cheering with Annabeth.

"Watch it Prissy" Clarisse threatened.

I smiled innocently.

**A bunch of ugly cheering rose from the Ares table.**

**"Personally," Mr. D continued, "I couldn't care less, but congratulations. Also, I should tell you that we have a new camper today. Paige Johnson."**

"Why does Mr. D always get everyone's name wrong?" Annabeth asked. "I mean, I've been here for years, but he still calls me Anniebelle."

I shrugged, who knows why Mr. D does things?

**Chiron murmured something.**

**"Er, Percy Jackson," Mr. D corrected. "That's right. Hurrah, and all that. Now run along to your silly campfire. Go on."**

**Everybody cheered.**

**On my way to the amphitheater I heard a girl from Aphrodite's cabin talk to her friend.**

"**How can Mr. D call a boy a girl's name? That's even to much for him!" she giggled.**

**I glared at her, "I'm Percy. I'm pretty sure I'm not a guy?" I sneered.**

**The girl twirled around so fast I'm surprised that she didn't get whiplash.**

" **You're Percy? What kind of name is Percy? That's such a guy's name!" she exclaimed, with a horrified look on her face.**

"**Well what's your name?" I snarled.**

"**Drew" she said, flipping her hair.**

**I snorted, "Cause Drew isn't also a boy's name. Hypocrite" I laughed.**

"Haha, she so walked into that one all on her own!" Silena giggled.

**The angry look on her face would put a big smile on mine for a while.**

**We all headed down toward the amphitheater, where Apollo's cabin led a sing-along. We sang camp songs about the gods and ate s'mores and joked around, and the funny thing was, I didn't feel that anyone was staring at me anymore. I felt that I was home.**

"I like s'mores. Almost as much as I like strawberries" I said, looking at my dad hopefully.

He rolled his eyes fondly before snapping his fingers and making a plate of strawberries appear in front of me. I squealed in delight, before tossing a few into the fire and thinking "Poseidon" in my mind.

"Thank you daddy!" I said, then dug in.

**Later in the evening, when the sparks from the campfire were curling into a starry sky, the conch horn blew again, and we all filed back to our cabins. I didn't realize how exhausted I was until I collapsed on my borrowed sleeping bag.**

**My fingers curled around the Minotaur's horn. I thought about my mom, but I had good thoughts: her smile, the bedtime stories she would read me when I was a kid, the way she would tell me not to let the bedbugs bite.**

**When I closed my eyes, I fell asleep instantly.**

**That was my first day at Camp Half-Blood.**

**I wish I'd known how briefly I would get to enjoy my new home.**

"What's that suppose to mean?" my dad asked me worried.

"Don't worry daddy" I told him.

"That's the last chapter for the night campers! To bed!" Chiron announced.

The amphitheater was filled with groans of disappointment, but everyone did what Chiron told them to.

"Night daddy!" I said and gave him hug, before walking away with Nico.

* * *

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

* * *

That's it for today my lovelies! I'll try to update more, but when September comes there's not gonna be a lot of them. Anyways Peace, Love and Chocolate Bunnies!

Star***


	8. Chapter 8: Capture the Flag

Hello my amazing, awesome and brilliant readers! (I know that you're amazing, awesome and brilliant cause you started reading this! I am so terribly sorry for abandoning all of you like that. And too apologies, I made you this for thanksgiving! Anyway, the results are in. what did most of you vote for? Am I going to keep my word and do what you asked? And are you reading this in a mysterious commentator's voice? We will find out after these messages!

Special Thanks to the lovely people who has stuck with this story even though I haven't updated in like a month.

Alright, I can't hold it off any longer. Here it is: Whole chapters win! So now, I have to stick with whole chapters. *Sigh*. Oh well, _c'est la vie._

Disclaimer: Just rub it in that I'll never own you why don't ya!

PS. It seems that when you don't write for a long time you start to go insane and talk to yourself. Who knew…

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

The next morning I hurried to get ready. I was going to see my dad again! I'd missed him sooooo, soooooo, soooooooo much! And, he gives me strawberries! You'd think that after repeating that I like strawberries over and over again, someone would have the sense to get me the damn strawberries. But noo!

After I finished with my slightly insane thoughts I left my cabin and ran to Nico's.

"Nico!" I cackled as I knocked on his door loudly, "Open up!"

"The damn door's open! Just come inside and let me have some peace!" he yelled back.

I opened his door with a smile. I looked around the room and spotted a lump underneath the covers. With a grin I ran and jumped onto the bed.

"Wakey wakey eggs and bakey!" I sang.

The lump emitted a loud groan of annoyance before Nico stuck his head out from under the covers.

"What do you want from me at this ungodly hour in the morning?" he asked glaring at me.

I took a look at his alarm clock and rolled my eyes.

"It's 9:30 in the morning. Even Mr. D is up already at this time," I told him.

"Yeah well, I always knew he was an idiot" he retorted.

Thunder boomed so loudly that Nico jumped out of the blanket, revealing his pink bunny rabbit underwear. I snorted, causing Nico to look at me.

"Sexy boxers you got there" I said, trying to keep a straight face.

Nico gave me a confused look before looking down and seeing what I was talking about. With a yelp, Nico grabbed his blankets and wrapped them around his waist, his face tomato red the whole time. I snickered as I saw him moving frantically to get them on.

"Nico, don't be embarrassed. It takes a real man to wear pink bunny underwear," I told him, grinning.

He glared at me while his face turned even redder.

"That's not funny Percy. You were the one that bought this for me as a gag gift. Its not my fault that you caught me wearing them" he said, shooting me a dirty look.

Just then, the door opened and a frantic Hades was shown.

"Nico? I heard screaming, are you al-" Hades stopped talking when he saw me in the room.

I blushed. Of all people to see us like this. With Nico just with a blanket around his waist and me in short shorts and an orange tank top.

"Um, I'm gonna go do, something. You guys stay here, bond, alright?' I said to them before running out of the room.

I could feel Nico's glare on me but I kept running until I got to the dining pavilion. Once there I sat down at my table and waited for more people to come. There was still twenty minutes until breakfast, but there were some early comers. Five minutes later, I was joined by Apollo, who had decided to sit right across from me.

"Er, hello" I said cautiously.

"Hi!" he said cheerfully.

"Um, not to be rude or anything, but why are you here. Like at this table?" I asked him.

"Well why wouldn't I want to sit with a beautiful young lady such as yourself?" he asked me grinning.

I felt my cheeks flush.

"Oh, um, alright. But you might want to leave when my dad gets here. He doesn't like guys talking to me" I told him.

"Ahh, don't worry about him! I'm his favorite nephew! He wouldn't do anything to me" he said confidently.

"I won't, you say? I must tell you that you are severely wrong in this case Apollo. Go sit with your children and let me have mine to myself" my dad said, appearing behind Apollo.

"O-of course uncle" Apollo stammered before running away, not before winking at me though.

"Coward" I heard dad mumble.

"Uh, hi daddy" I said hesitantly as he dropped himself into the seat across from me.

"Hello Percy, I trust you slept well," he said smiling at me.

"Oh, yeah! No nightmares last night, so that's good" I said.

"That is good," he said, agreeing with me.

We sat in silence for a few more minutes before campers and gods began pouring into the mess hall. In seconds, the once silent room was filled with the loud chatter of kids as they walked to their tables. I caught Nico's eye and looked away quickly when he glared at me. He approached the table and sat down beside me.

"Er, hey Nico. Everything went well with your dad right?" I asked him while trying to make myself smaller.

He continued to glare at me, "Yes, it's all settled now. No help from you though" he said frostily.

I blushed, "Yea, sorry about that. I don't do well under pressure," I mumbled.

After a few more seconds Nico stopped glaring and rolled his eyes.

"I can never stay mad at you. You're too, unmaddable?" he said.

I snorted, "Unmaddable? What does that even mean?" I giggled.

He narrowed his eyes, "It means that it's hard to stay mad at you."

"That's not even a word," I protested while laughing.

"It is if I say so!"

"It doesn't work that way idiot!"

"Yes it does!" I never argue when you say stupid things, you do you have to argue with me?"

"Are you calling me stupid?"

"Maybe I am!"

"That's rich! If one of us is an idiot it's you!"

"Takes one to know one!"

"Do you wanna go Di Angelo?"

"Is that a challenge?"

"Hardly, since I'll cream your ass!"

"Oh its on! If you even believe for a second that y-"

"Enough! Stop acting like five year olds and get over it!" my dad yelled, efficiently cutting of our argument.

We both flushed angrily, noticing everyone staring at us.

"Fine" I snarled.

"Good, now eat. We need to continue the book" dad said.

We grudgingly began to eat. After everyone finished we Apollo volunteered.

"**We Capture a Flag," **he read.

**The next few days I settled into a routine that felt almost normal, if you don't count the fact that I was getting lessons from satyrs, nymphs, and a centaur.**

**Each morning I took Ancient Greek from Annabeth, and we talked about the gods and goddesses in the present tense, which was kind of weird. I discovered Annabeth was right about my dyslexia: Ancient Greek wasn't that hard for me to read. At least, no harder than English.**

"I hate being dyslexic," I grumbled.

All of the halfbloods nodded in agreement.

**After a couple of mornings, I could stumble through a few lines of Homer without too much headache.**

**The rest of the day, I'd rotate through outdoor activities, looking for something I was good at. Chiron tried to teach me archery,** **but we found out pretty quick I wasn't any good with a bow and arrow. He didn't complain, even when he had to desnag a stray arrow out of his tail.**

"I also hate archery," I muttered, getting a lot of glares from the Apollo kids.

**Foot racing? No good either. The wood-nymph instructors left me in the dust. They told me not to worry about it. They'd had centuries of practice running away from lovesick gods. But still, it was a little humiliating to be slower than a tree.**

**And wrestling? Forget it. Every time I got on the mat, Clarisse would pulverize me.**

**"There's more where that came from, punk," she'd mumble in my ear.**

"I really hate wrestling," I said.

"You don't seem to like a lot of things, do you?" Malcolm chuckled.

"That's not true! I adore strawberries!" I exclaimed, getting a small smile from Nico.

**The only thing I really excelled at was canoeing, and that wasn't the kind of heroic skill people expected to see from the kid who had beaten the Minotaur.**

**I knew the senior campers and counselors were watching me, trying to decide who my dad was, but they weren't having an easy time of it. I wasn't as strong as the Ares kids, or as good at archery as the Apollo kids.**

"That's obvious" Drew snarked.

I rolled my eyes at her. Drew could go screw herself for all I care.

**I didn't have Hephaestus's skill with metalwork or—gods forbid— Dionysus's way with vine plants. Luke told me I might be a child of Hermes, a kind of jack-of-all-trades, master of none. But I got the feeling he was just trying to make me feel better. He really didn't know what to make of me either.**

**Despite all that, I liked camp.**

"Who doesn't?" Katie asked.

"Idiots, Losers, Nico, no wait, he's in the same group as idiots. Never mind" I said, getting glares from Nico, to which I glared back.

"What's up with them?" a camper whispered, not very quietly mind you.

His friend shrugged, "Lovers spat maybe?"

I glared in their direction.

**I got used to the morning fog over the beach, the smell of hot strawberry fields in the afternoon, even the weird noises of monsters in the woods at night. I would eat dinner with cabin eleven, scrape part of my meal into the fire, and try to feel some connection to my real dad. Nothing came. Just that warm feeling I'd always had, like the memory of his smile. I tried not to think too much about my mom, but I kept wondering: if gods and monsters were real, if all this magical stuff was possible, surely there was some way to save her, to bring her back...**

I received a few sad looks. Most campers knew what it was like to lose someone close to you.

**I started to understand Luke's bitterness and how he seemed to resent his father, Hermes. So okay, maybe gods had important things to do. But couldn't they call once in a while, or thunder, or something? Dionysus could make Diet Coke appear out of thin air. Why couldn't my dad, whoever he was, make a phone appear?**

"I wanted too, I really did. But Zeus' stupid law prevented me from doing it" Poseidon told me with a sad look in his eyes.

I shrugged, it was years ago and I didn't blame him that much.

**Thursday afternoon, three days after I'd arrived at Camp Half-Blood, I had my first sword-fighting lesson. Everybody from cabin eleven gathered in the big circular arena, where Luke would be our instructor.**

**We started with basic stabbing and slashing, using some straw-stuffed dummies in Greek armor. I guess I did okay. At least, I understood what I was supposed to do and my reflexes were good.**

**The problem was, I couldn't find a blade that felt right in my hands. Either they were too heavy, or too light, or too long.**

"That always happens with Poseidon's kids. You're never able to make up your mind" Athena sighed, making me pout.

It wasn't _my _fault that I was picky when it came to weapons!

**Luke tried his best to fix me up, but he agreed that none of the practice blades seemed to work for me.**

**We moved on to dueling in pairs. Luke announced he would be my partner, since this was my first time.**

**"Good luck," one of the campers told me. "Luke's the best swordsman in the last three hundred years."**

**"Maybe he'll go easy on me," I said.**

**The camper snorted.**

**Luke showed me thrusts and parries and shield blocks the hard way. With every swipe, I got a little more battered and bruised. "Keep your guard up, Seph," he'd say, then whap me in the ribs with the flat of his blade. "No, not that far up!" **_**Whap! **_**"Lunge!" **_**Whap! **_**"Now, back!" **_**Whap!**_

**By the time he called a break, I was soaked in sweat. **

"Ewwwww!" Aphrodite shrieked, causing me to cover my ears. This lady could squeal so loudly, it's a wonder that we could still hear it.

**Everybody swarmed the drinks cooler. Luke poured ice water on his head, which looked like such a good idea, I did the same.**

"Yes! The water will give you power!" my dad cheered, scaring most of the campers and making Nico fall off of the bench.

Annabeth and I shared a horrified look. It seems that my father has gotten into the sugar again. Crap.

**Instantly, I felt better. Strength surged back into my arms. The sword didn't feel so awkward.**

**"Okay, everybody circle up!" Luke ordered. "If Percy doesn't mind, I want to give you a little demo."**

**Great, I thought. Let's all watch Percy get pounded.**

**The Hermes kids gathered around. They were suppressing smiles. I figured they'd been in my shoes before and couldn't wait to see how Luke used me for a punching bag. He told everybody he was going to demonstrate a disarming technique: how to twist the enemy's blade with the flat of your own sword so that he had no choice but to drop his weapon.**

**"This is difficult," he stressed. "I've had it used against me. No laughing at Seph, now. Most swordsmen have to work years to master this technique."**

" I felt a bit offended. I'm not a guy, so why was he saying swords_men_?" I grumbled.

"I don't think he was trying to offend you. Its just that, there's a lot more guys who sword fight than there are girls" Will said.

"Probably. But I still don't like it" I said, sulking.

**He demonstrated the move on me in slow motion. Sure enough, the sword clattered out of my hand.**

**"Now in real time," he said, after I'd retrieved my weapon. "We keep sparring until one of us pulls it off. Ready, Seph?"**

**I nodded, and Luke came after me. Somehow, I kept him from getting a shot at the hilt of my sword. My senses opened up. I saw his attacks coming. I countered. I stepped forward and tried a thrust of my own. Luke deflected it easily, but I saw a change in his face. His eyes narrowed, and he started to press me with more force.**

**The sword grew heavy in my hand. The balance wasn't right.**

**I knew it was only a matter of seconds before Luke took me down, so I figured, what the heck?**

**I tried the disarming maneuver.**

**My blade hit the base of Luke's and I twisted, putting my whole weight into a downward thrust.**

_**Clang.**_

"That's my girl! You kicked his ass!" Poseidon cheered.

I blushed. It was nice getting praise from gods.

**Luke's sword rattled against the stones.**

**The tip of my blade was an inch from his undefended chest.**

**The other campers were silent.**

"**Uhh, sorry?" I said, biting my lip nervously.**

**For a moment, Luke was too stunned to speak.**

**"Sorry?" His scarred face broke into a grin. "By the gods, Seph, why are you sorry? Show me that again!"**

**I didn't want to. The short burst of manic energy had completely abandoned me. But Luke insisted.**

**This time, there was no contest. The moment our swords connected, Luke hit my hilt and sent my weapon skidding across the floor.**

**After a long pause, somebody in the audience said, "Beginner's luck?"**

"It was not beginners luck! It was the water! The water gives you strength!" Poseidon yelled, way too caught up in the story.

Nico leaned over and whispered in my ear, "Your dad scares me" he told me.

"He scares me too," I said back, unknowingly forgetting the tiny and stupid argument we had.

**Luke wiped the sweat off his brow. He appraised at me with an entirely new interest. "Maybe," he said. "But I wonder what Percy could do with a balanced sword..."**

**Friday afternoon, I was sitting with Grover at the lake, resting from a near-death experience on the climbing wall.**

**Grover had scampered to the top like a mountain goat, but the lava had almost gotten me. My shirt had smoking holes in it.**

**We sat on the pier, watching the naiads do underwater basket weaving, until I got up the nerve to ask Grover how his conversation had gone with Mr. D.**

**His face turned a sickly shade of yellow.**

**"Fine," he said. "Just great."**

**"So your career's still on track?"**

**He glanced at me nervously. "Chiron t-told you I want a searcher's license?"**

**"Well... no." I had no idea what a searcher's license was, but it didn't seem like the right time to ask.**

**"He just said you had big plans, you know ... and that you needed credit for completing a keeper's assignment. So did you get it?"**

**Grover looked down at the naiads. "Mr. D suspended judgment. He said I hadn't failed or succeeded with you yet, so our fates were still tied together. If you got a quest and I went along to protect you, and we both came back alive, then maybe he'd consider the job complete."**

**My spirits lifted. "Well, that's not so bad, right?"**

_**"Blaa-ha-ha!**_ **He might as well have transferred me to stable-cleaning duty. The chances of you getting a quest... and even if you did, why would you want **_**me **_**along?"**

"You did keep me alive for a whole year, didn't you? Why wouldn't want my trusty sidekick with me one a quest to save mankind?" I asked Grover.

He smiled at me, while Annabeth grumbled.

"When you say it like that, it sounds like some great adventure. It was more of a nightmare," Annabeth said.

I shrugged; I had thought that it was fun.

**Grover stared glumly into the water. "Basket-weaving ... Must be nice to have a useful skill."**

**I tried to reassure him that he had lots of talents, but that just made him look more miserable. We talked about canoeing and swordplay for a while, and then debated the pros and cons of the different gods. Finally, I asked him about the four empty cabins.**

**"Number eight, the silver one, belongs to Artemis," he said. "She vowed to be a maiden forever. So of course, no kids. The cabin is, you know, honorary. If she didn't have one, she'd be mad."**

**"But the other three, the ones at the end. Are those the Big Three?"**

"No. One of them is mine" Hera said proudly. "Of course, it's just honorary. _I_, unlike my husband, is loyal" she finished bitterly, glaring at Zeus.

**Grover tensed. We were getting close to a touchy subject. "No. One of them, number two, is Hera's," he said. "That's another honorary thing. She's the goddess of marriage, so of course she wouldn't go around having affairs with mortals.** **That's her husband's job. When we say the Big Three, we mean the three powerful brothers, the sons of Kronos."**

**"Zeus, Poseidon, Hades."**

**"Right. You know. After the great battle with the Titans, they took over the world from their dad and drew lots to decide who got what."**

**"Zeus got the sky," I remembered. "Poseidon the sea, Hades the Underworld."**

**"Uh-huh."**

**"But Hades doesn't have a cabin here."**

"Nor do I have a throne on Olympus" he grumbled.

**"No. He doesn't have a throne on Olympus, either. He sort of does his own thing down in the Underworld. If he did have a cabin here..." Grover shuddered. "Well, it wouldn't be pleasant. Let's leave it at that."**

**"But Zeus and Poseidon—they both had, like, a bazillion kids in the myths. Why are their cabins empty?"**

**Grover shifted his hooves uncomfortably.**

**"About sixty years ago, after World War II, the Big Three agreed they wouldn't sire any more heroes.**

"That's stupid though. They're just delaying the war. They would've broken it anyway. And even if they didn't, Nico would be the prophecy child." Thalia said and I nodded in agreement.

It would have been so much smarter to just get it over with.

**Their children were just too powerful. They were affecting the course of human events too much, causing too much carnage. World War II, you know, that was basically a fight between the sons of Zeus and Poseidon on one side, and the sons of Hades on the other. The winning side, Zeus and Poseidon, made Hades swear an oath with them: no more affairs with mortal women. They all swore on the River Styx."**

**Thunder boomed.**

**I said, "That's the most serious oath you can make."**

**Grover nodded.**

**"And the brothers kept their word—no kids?"**

"Clearly they didn't" Hera said, looking at Nico and I, making me stick my tongue out at her.

**Grover's face darkened. "Seventeen years ago, Zeus fell off the wagon.**

**There was this TV starlet with a big fluffy eighties hairdo—he just couldn't help himself. When their child was born, a little girl named Thalia ... well, the River Styx is serious about promises. Zeus himself got off easy because he's immortal, but he brought a terrible fate on his daughter."**

**"But that isn't fair. It wasn't the little girl's fault."**

**Grover hesitated. "Percy, children of the Big Three have powers greater than other half-bloods.**

**They have a strong aura, a scent that attracts monsters. When Hades found out about the girl, he wasn't too happy about Zeus breaking his oath. Hades let the worst monsters out of Tartarus to torment Thalia. A satyr was assigned to be her keeper when she was twelve, but there was nothing he could do.**

**He tried to escort her here with a couple of other half bloods she'd befriended. They almost made it. They got all the way to the top of that hill."**

"That's why it's called HalfBlood Hill. In memory of Thalia" Chiron said sadly.

"Speaking of Thalia, I shouldn't leave my hunters alone. Apollo, go get them" Artemis ordered.

Apollo looked like he was about to argue when he got a look from Artemis, and vanished. Artemis picked up the book and began to read in her brother's place.

**He pointed across the valley, to the pine tree where I'd fought the Minotaur. "All three Kindly Ones were after them, along with a horde of hellhounds. They were about to be overrun when Thalia told her satyr to take the other two half bloods to safety while she held off the monsters. She was wounded and tired, and she didn't want to live like a hunted animal. The satyr didn't want to leave her, but he couldn't change her mind, and he had to protect the others. So Thalia made her final stand alone, at the top of that hill. As she died,** **Zeus took pity on her. He turned her into that pine tree. Her spirit still helps protect the borders of the valley. That's why the hill is called Half-Blood Hill."**

"I guess you already know" Chiron chuckled.

**I stared at the pine in the distance.**

**The story made me feel hollow, and guilty too. A girl my age had sacrificed herself to save her friends. She had faced a whole army of monsters. Next to that, my victory over the Minotaur didn't seem like much.**

**I wondered, if I'd acted differently, could I have saved my mother?**

**"Grover," I said, "Have heroes really gone on quests to the Underworld?"**

**"Sometimes," he said. "Orpheus. Hercules. Houdini."**

**"And have they ever returned somebody from the dead?"**

**"No. Never. Orpheus came close... Percy, you're not seriously thinking—"**

**"No," I lied.**

**"I was just wondering. So ... a satyr is always assigned to guard a demigod?"**

**Grover studied me warily. I hadn't persuaded him that I'd really dropped the Underworld idea. "Not always. We go undercover to a lot of schools. We try to sniff out the half bloods that have the makings of great heroes. If we find one with a very strong aura, like a child of the Big Three, we alert Chiron. He tries to keep an eye on them, since they could cause really huge problems."**

**"And you found me. Chiron said you thought I might be something special."**

"Yah, a special mental case" Annabeth muttered, causing me to pout.

**Grover looked as if I'd just led him into a trap.**

**"I didn't... Oh, listen, don't think like that. If you **_**were**_—**you know—you'd never **_**ever **_**be allowed a quest, and I'd never get my license. You're probably a child of Hermes. Or maybe even one of the minor gods, like Nemesis, the god of revenge. Don't worry, okay?"**

**I got the idea he was reassuring himself more than me.**

**That night after dinner, there was a lot more excitement than usual.**

**At last, it was time for capture the flag.**

"Ohhhhhhh! I loooooovvve capture the flag! Its soooooo much fun" Silena squealed, causing a few campers to laugh.

"Really? I hate sports! They make you all sweaty and gross!" Aphrodite said, shuddering.

"How can you hate sports? They make the world go 'round!" Silena protested.

"I thought that was chocolate ice cream" I said confused, getting a few strange looks.

"After sports!" Silena shrieked.

I nodded slowly, deciding to humor her. How could she think that sports were better than ice cream? Especially chocolate ice cream?

**When the plates were cleared away, the conch horn sounded and we all stood at our tables.**

**Campers yelled and cheered as Annabeth and two of her siblings ran into the pavilion carrying a silk banner. It was about ten feet long, glistening gray, with a painting of a barn owl above an olive tree. From the opposite side of the pavilion, Clarisse and her buddies ran in with another banner, of identical size, but gaudy red, painted with a bloody spear and a boar's head.**

**I turned to Luke and yelled over the noise, "Those are the flags?"**

**"Yeah."**

**"Ares and Athena always lead the teams?"**

**"Not always," he said. "But often."**

**"So, if another cabin captures one, what do you do? Repaint the flag?"**

I heard a loud snort. I looked over to see Thalia and the rest of the hunters.

"You thought that you had to repaint the flag? You clearly haven't changed than. Still as stupid and clueless as ever" she said, laughing.

It goes to show how happy I was to see her that I didn't even glare at the slight against my brilliance.

"Thalia!" I exclaimed, before tackling her with a hug.

She grinned at me.

"Nice to see you kiddo" she said, even though she was only four months older than me. She would have been five years older than me, but being trapped in a tree and becoming an eternal maiden means you don't age.

"We're reading a book! About me! And Nico read as well, which was surprising since I didn't know he could read! And than I-" I started rambling, trying to explain everything to Thalia.

"Whoa there girlie! Apollo already explained everything to us on the way here" she chuckled.

"Oh" I said, disappointed, before pushing Thalia over to my table and forcing her to sit down with me. After everyone greeted the hunters, Apollo took the book back and started to read.

**He grinned. "You'll see. First we have to get one."**

**"Whose side are we on?"**

**He gave me a sly look, as if he knew something I didn't. The scar on his face made him look almost evil in the torchlight. "We've made a temporary alliance with Athena. Tonight, we get the flag from Ares. And **_**you **_**are going to help."**

**The teams were announced. Athena had made an alliance with Apollo and Hermes, the two biggest cabins.**

**Apparently, privileges had been traded—shower times, chore schedules, the best slots for activities—in order to win support.**

**Ares had allied themselves with everybody else: Dionysus, Demeter, Aphrodite, and Hephaestus. From what I'd seen, Dionysus's kids were actually good athletes, but there were only two of them. Demeter's kids had the edge with nature skills and outdoor stuff but they weren't very aggressive. Aphrodite's sons and daughters I wasn't too worried about. They mostly sat out every activity and checked their reflections in the lake and did their hair and gossiped.**

"Well, all of them besides Silena" I said, smiling at the different Aphrodite girl.

**Hephaestus's kids weren't pretty, and there were only four of them, but they were big and burly from working in the metal shop all day. They might be a problem.**

**That, of course, left Ares's cabin: a dozen of the biggest, ugliest, meanest kids on Long Island, or anywhere else on the planet.**

"Hey!" Ares and his cabin protested while I laughed.

**Chiron hammered his hoof on the marble.**

**"Heroes!" he announced. "You know the rules. The creek is the boundary line. The entire forest is fair game. All magic items are allowed. The banner must be prominently displayed, and have no more than two guards. Prisoners may be disarmed, but may not be bound or gagged. No killing or maiming is allowed. I will serve as referee and battlefield medic. Arm yourselves!"**

**He spread his hands, and the tables were suddenly covered with equipment: helmets, bronze swords, spears, and ox-hide shields coated in metal.**

**"Whoa," I said. "We're really supposed to use these?"**

**Luke looked at me as if I were crazy. "Unless you want to get skewered by your friends in cabin five. Here—Chiron thought these would fit. You'll be on border patrol."**

"Gahh! I despise border patrol! You never do anything interesting!" I exclaimed.

"I don't know why you're complaining! Your first border patrol was the most eventful besides the incident in '02" Katie said, shuddering.

"That was horrible" Annabeth said, wincing.

**My shield was the size of an NBA backboard, with a big caduceus in the middle. It weighed about a million pounds. I could have snowboarded on it fine, but I hoped nobody seriously expected me to run fast.**

**My helmet, like all the helmets on Athena's side, had a blue horsehair plume on top. Ares and their allies had red plumes.**

**Annabeth yelled, "Blue team, forward!"**

**We cheered and shook our swords and followed her down the path to the south woods. The red team yelled taunts at us as they headed off toward the north.**

**I managed to catch up with Annabeth without tripping over my equipment. "Hey."**

**She kept marching.**

**"So what's the plan?" I asked. "Got any magic items you can loan me?"**

**Her hand drifted toward her pocket, as if she were afraid I'd stolen something.**

"**Don't worry Chase. I know for sure that I'm not Hermes' kid," I told her, chuckling.**

"Nah, you're not cool enough to be a Hermes kid. Sorry Perce" Travis grinned at me.

I pouted. I so was cool enough to be a Hermes kid! I managed to sweet talk someone into giving me a car! It doesn't get more Hermes than that!

**"Just watch Clarisse's spear," she said. "You don't want that thing touching you.**

**Otherwise, don't worry. We'll take the banner from Ares. Has Luke given you your job?"**

**"Border patrol, whatever that means."**

**"It's easy. Stand by the creek, keep the reds away. Leave the rest to me. Athena always has a plan."**

**She pushed ahead, leaving me in the dust.**

**"Okay," I mumbled. "Glad you wanted me on your team."**

"More like ' glad you wanted to use me as bait'" I grumbled.

**It was a warm, sticky night. The woods were dark, with fireflies popping in and out of view**_**. **_**Annabeth stationed me next to a little creek that gurgled over some rocks, then she and the rest of the team scattered into the trees.**

**Standing there alone, with my big blue-feathered helmet and my huge shield, I felt like an idiot. The bronze sword, like all the swords I'd tried so far, seemed balanced wrong. The leather grip pulled on my hand like a bowling ball.**

**There was no way anybody would actually attack me, would they? I mean, Olympus had to have liability issues, right?**

"You would think" Nico muttered, making me giggle and nudge him.

He smiled at me.

**Far away, the conch horn blew. I heard whoops and yells in the woods, the clanking of metal, kids fighting. A blue-plumed ally from Apollo raced past me like a deer, leaped through the creek, and disappeared into enemy territory.**

**Great, I thought. I'll miss all the fun, as usual.**

**Then I heard a sound that sent a chill up my spine, a low canine growl, somewhere close by.**

**I raised my shield instinctively; I had the feeling something was stalking me.**

**Then the growling stopped. I felt the presence retreating.**

"Hm, good instincts. Would make a fine hunter," Artemis said thoughtfully, making me smile.

I suppose it would be rather cool to be a hunter, but then I'd have to give up my life. I might never see my mom again, or Annabeth, Grover, not even Nico, and I wasn't sure that I was willing to make that sacrifice.

**On the other side of the creek, the underbrush exploded.**

**Five Ares warriors came yelling and screaming out of the dark.**

**"Cream the punk!" Clarisse screamed.**

**Her ugly pig eyes glared through the slits of her helmet. She brandished a five-foot-long spear, its barbed metal tip flickering with red light. Her siblings had only the standard-issue bronze swords—not that that made me feel any better.**

**They charged across the stream. There was no help in sight. I could run. Or I could defend myself against half the Ares cabin.**

**I managed to sidestep the first kid's swing, but these guys were not as stupid the Minotaur.**

"Could've fooled me," Malcolm said quietly, not quiet enough for no one to hear mind you. So now, he had to face the full brunt of the Ares' children's glares.

**They surrounded me, and Clarisse thrust at me with her spear. My shield deflected the point, but I felt a painful tingling all over my body. My hair stood on end. My shield arm went numb, and the air burned.**

**Electricity. The bitch's stupid spear was electric.**

**I fell back.**

**Another Ares guy slammed me in the chest with the butt of his sword and I hit the dirt.**

**They could've kicked me into jelly, but they were too busy laughing.**

**"Give her a haircut," Clarisse said. "Grab her hair."**

"You tried to touch her hair? And you're not dead? That's amazing!" Conner said, looking shocked.

"It's only you who can't touch my hair Conner," I told him.

"Why not?" he asked affronted.

"Because the last time you touched my hair, you glued tinfoil to my hair!" I said furiously.

"Oh yeah" he said, rubbing his neck.

**I managed to get to my feet. I raised my sword, but Clarisse slammed it aside with her spear as sparks flew. Now both my arms felt numb.**

**"Oh, wow," Clarisse, said. "I'm scared of this girl. Really scared."**

**"The flag is that way," I told her. I couldn't care less if they knew and won.**

**"Yeah," one of her siblings said. "But see, we don't care about the flag. We care about a girl who made our cabin look stupid."**

**"You do that without my help," I told them. It probably wasn't the smartest thing to say, but I wasn't going to let them boss me around.**

"You think? That was the definition of idiotic!" Thalia exclaimed, looking like she was trying not to laugh.

"What can I say? I'm a risk taker," I said, grinning.

"More like suicidal" she retorted.

**Two of them came at me. I backed up toward the creek, tried to raise my shield, but Clarisse was too fast. Her spear stuck me straight in the ribs. If I hadn't been wearing an armored breastplate, I would've been shish-kebabbed. As it was, the electric point just about shocked my teeth out of my mouth. One of her cabin mates slashed his sword across my arm, leaving a good-size cut.**

Poseidon gripped my arm and inspected it, as if trying to see if there was still a gash in my arm.

**Seeing my own blood made me dizzy—warm and cold at the same time.**

**"No maiming," I managed to say.**

**"Oops," the guy said. "Guess I lost my dessert privilege."**

**He pushed me into the creek and I landed with a splash.**

"Yes! The water empowers you Percy!" dad cheered, clearly caught up in the story, making me smile at his child like tendencies.

**They all laughed. I figured as soon as they were through being amused, I would get hurt even more. But then something happened. The water seemed to wake up my senses, as if I'd just had a bag of my mom's double-espresso jellybeans.**

**Clarisse and her cabin mates came into the creek to get me, but I stood to meet them. I knew what to do. I swung the flat of my sword against the first guy's head and knocked his helmet clean off. I hit him so hard I could see his eyes vibrating as he crumpled into the water.**

**Ugly Number Two and Ugly Number Three came at me.**

"Ugly Number Two and Ugly Number Three?" Apollo said amused.

"I don't know their names! I had to improvise!" I pouted, feeling stupid.

**I slammed one in the face with my shield and used my sword to shear off the other guy's horsehair plume. Both of them backed up quick. Ugly Number Four didn't look really anxious to attack, but Clarisse kept coming, the point of her spear crackling with energy. As soon as she thrust, I caught the shaft between the edge of my shield and my sword, and I snapped it like a twig.**

**"Ah!" she screamed. "You idiot! You corpse-breath worm!"**

"And here I am, thinking that's Hades" Demeter mumbled.

**She probably would've said worse, but I smacked her between the eyes with my sword-butt and sent her stumbling backward out of the creek.**

**Then I heard yelling, elated screams, and I saw Luke racing toward the boundary line with the red team's banner lifted high. He was flanked by a couple of Hermes guys covering his retreat, and a few Apollos behind them, fighting off the Hephaestus kids. The Ares folks got up, and Clarisse muttered a dazed curse.**

**"A trick!" she shouted. "It was a trick."**

"**No shit Sherlock" I snarked.**

**They staggered after Luke, but it was too late. Everybody converged on the creek as Luke ran across into friendly territory. Our side exploded into cheers. The red banner shimmered and turned to silver. The boar and spear were replaced with a huge caduceus, the symbol of cabin eleven.**

"That freaked me out so much when I saw that." I told Nico.

He chuckled and put his arm around my waist and I sunk into his side.

**Everybody on the blue team picked up Luke and started carrying him around on their shoulders. Chiron cantered out from the woods and blew the conch horn.**

**The game was over. We'd won.**

**I was about to join the celebration when Annabeth's voice, right next to me in the creek, said, "Not bad, hero."**

**I looked, but she wasn't there.**

**"Where the heck did you learn to fight like that?" she asked. The air shimmered, and she materialized, holding a Yankees baseball cap as if she'd just taken it off her head.**

"**Great idea brainiac. Give the girl with the least amount of knowledge of fighting the most dangerous part." I glared at her.**

**Annabeth shrugged. "I told you. Athena always, always has a plan."**

**"A plan to get me pulverized."**

**"I came as fast as I could. I was about to jump in, but ..." She shrugged. "You didn't need help."**

"Of course she didn't! She's the greatest, most amazingest person ever!" my dad yelled, affronted on my behalf.

"Does he know that he's talking to a book?" I asked Nico.

"Probably not. But I'm not going to be the one to tell him" he replied, looking at Poseidon apprehensively.

**Then she noticed my wounded arm. "How did you do that?"**

**"Sword cut dumbass," I said. "What do you think?"**

**"No. It **_**was **_**a sword cut. Look at it."**

**The blood was gone. Where the huge cut had been, there was a long white scratch, and even that was fading. As I watched, it turned into a small scar, and disappeared.**

**"I—I don't get it," I said.**

**Annabeth was thinking hard.**

**I could almost see the gears turning. She looked down at my feet, then at Clarisse's broken spear, and said, "Step out of the water, Percy."**

**"What—"**

**"Just do it."**

**I came out of the creek and immediately felt bone tired. My arms started to go numb again. My adrenaline rush left me. I almost fell over, but Annabeth steadied me.**

**"Oh, Styx," she cursed. "This is **_**not **_**good. I didn't want ... I assumed it would be Zeus..."**

"Hey! Why does everyone automatically assume that it'sme?" Zeus yelled angrily, causing those sitting next to him scoot away.

**Before I could ask what she meant, I heard that canine growl again, but much closer than before. A howl ripped through the forest.**

**The campers' cheering died instantly. Chiron shouted something in Ancient Greek, which I would realize, only later, I had understood perfectly: **_**"Stand ready! My bow!"**_

**Annabeth drew her sword.**

**There on the rocks just above us was a black hound the size of a rhino, with lava-red eyes and fangs like daggers.**

**It was looking straight at me.**

**Nobody moved except Annabeth, who yelled, "Percy, run!"**

**She tried to step in front of me, but the hound was too fast. It leaped over her—an enormous shadow with teeth—and just as it hit me, as I stumbled backward and felt its razor-sharp claws ripping through my armor, there was a cascade of thwacking sounds, like forty pieces of paper being ripped one after the other. From the hounds neck sprouted a cluster of arrows. The monster fell dead at my feet.**

**By some miracle, I was still alive. I didn't want to look underneath the ruins of my shredded armor. My chest felt warm and wet, and I knew I was badly cut. Another second, and the monster would've turned me into a hundred pounds of delicatessen meat.**

"Were you ok?" Nico asked me concerned and I smiled at him.

"I was fine Nico" I reassured him.

**Chiron trotted up next to us, a bow in his hand, his face grim.**

_**"Di immortales!"**_ **Annabeth said. "That's a hellhound from the Fields of Punishment. They don't ... they're not supposed to ..."**

**"Someone summoned it," Chiron said. "Someone inside the camp."**

**Luke came over, the banner in his hand forgotten, his moment of glory gone.**

**Clarisse yelled, "It's all Percy's fault! Percy summoned it!"**

"Oh my freaking ponies on a stick, why would I summon something that would try to kill me?" I asked her, making her flush in embarrassment.

"Ponies on a stick?" Malcolm said chuckling.

I blushed, I couldn't think of anything else.

**"Be quiet, child," Chiron told her.**

**We watched the body of the hellhound melt into shadow, soaking into the ground until it disappeared.**

**"You're wounded," Annabeth told me. "Quick, Percy, get in the water."**

**"I'm okay."**

**"No, you're not," she said. "Chiron, watch this."**

**I was too tired to argue. I stepped back into the creek, the whole camp gathering around me.**

**Instantly, I felt better. I could feel the cuts on my chest closing up. Some of the campers gasped.**

**But they weren't watching my wounds heal. They were staring at something above my head.**

**"Percy," Annabeth said, pointing. "Um ..."**

**By the time I looked up, the sign was already fading, but I could still make out the hologram of green light, spinning and gleaming. A three-tipped spear: a trident.**

**"Your father," Annabeth murmured. "This is **_**really **_**not good."**

**"It is determined," Chiron announced.**

**All around me, campers started kneeling, even the Ares cabin, though they didn't look happy about it.**

"Of course we weren't! We just had to bow down to the person that made a total fool out of us!" Clarisse said angrily.

"Hey, calm down. It's not my fault that it's too easy to make you look foolish. You practically walk into it," I said teasingly, getting a mock glare from her.

**"My father?" I asked, completely bewildered.**

**"Poseidon," said Chiron. "Earthshaker, Stormbringer, Father of Horses. Hail, Persephany Jackson, Daughter of the Sea God."**

"Finally! That was an abnormally long chapter!" Apollo complained.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

There you go sweethearts! So, what's your favorite thing about Thanksgiving? Please tell me in the little box that appears after you click that little button down there.


	9. Chapter 9: I Am Offered A Quest

Hello lovelies! I'm still alive! So how was your Thanksgiving/ Halloween? Sorry I haven't updated in a while, but life's been a bit hectic. With school started, my dad getting sick, us about to move and my favorite girl's birthday, I just haven't had the time. Special Thanks to the lovely people who has stuck with this story even though I haven't updated in like three months as well as the people who had notified me of a few mistakes. I'll get around to correcting them once the fanfic is finished, that way I can get it done all at once. By the way, if anyone would like to draw a picture of Persephany, I'd love to be able to use it as the story picture or any upcoming Persephany Jackson stories. So just send it to me, or if you find one on the Internet, send me the link.

*Insert disclaimer here* (Yes, Yes, I know I'm lazy)

* * *

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

* * *

"I must leave. I have a meeting with Lady Iris" Chiron announced, before leaving.

"Here, pass the book" Hermes told him.

He passed me the book to Hermes, and then slid beside him on the bench. I put my legs up on Thalia's lap and leaned back against Nico.

"**I am offered a Quest," **I read"

"More like a death sentence" Grover muttered.

**The next morning, Chiron moved me to cabin three.**

**I didn't have to share with anybody. I had plenty of room for all my stuff: the Minotaur's horn, one set of spare clothes, and a toiletry bag. I got to sit at my own dinner table, pick all my own activities, call "lights out" whenever I felt like it, and not listen to anybody else.**

"That sounds great!" Connor exclaimed.

**And I was absolutely miserable.**

"Why?" Poseidon asked, worried.

I just gave him a slightly sad smile.

**Just when I'd started to feel accepted, to feel I had a home in cabin eleven and I might be a normal kid—or as normal as you can be when you're a half-blood—I'd been separated out as if I had some rare disease.**

"I know the feeling" Nico muttered in my ear.

I shuddered slightly.

**Nobody mentioned the hellhound, but I got the feeling they were all talking about it behind my back.**

Most of the campers smiled sheepishly.

**The attack had scared everybody. It sent two messages: one; that I was the daughter of the Sea God; and two, monsters would stop at nothing to kill me. They could even invade a camp that had always been considered safe.**

"That might put a bit of a strain on friendships and emotions," Apollo mumbled, making me giggle.

**The other campers steered clear of me as much as possible. Cabin eleven was too nervous to have sword class with me after what I'd done to the Ares folks in the woods, so my lessons with Luke became one-on-one. He pushed me harder than ever, and wasn't afraid to bruise me up in the process.**

"As much as I hate that jackass, he did have the right idea" Malcolm grumbled.

**"You're going to need all the training you can get," he promised, as we were working with swords and flaming torches. "Now let's try that viper-beheading strike again. Fifty more repetitions."**

"Fifty! Is he _trying _to kill you!"? Will exclaimed.

"No, not at all. The past few years have just been rehearsals for a play we're working on, _A Hero's Death_" I said sarcastically, making him blush.

**Annabeth still taught me Greek in the mornings, but she seemed distracted. Every time I said something, she scowled at me, as if I'd just poked her between the eyes.**

"Maybe you did" Travis said, looking at me with narrowed eyes.

I blinked… Wow, he's just reached a new level of stupidity.

"I can assure you that I have never poked Annabeth between the eyes" I said slowly.

"Good" he said, smiling happily.

**After lessons, she would walk away muttering to herself: "Quest ... Poseidon? ... Dirty rotten ... Got to make a plan …"**

**Even Clarisse kept her distance, though her venomous looks made it clear she wanted to kill me for breaking her magic spear. I wished she would just yell or punch me, or something. I'd rather get into fights every day than be ignored.**

"See, suicidal. What have I been saying?" Thalia said proudly.

**I knew somebody at camp resented me, because one night I came into my cabin and found a mortal newspaper dropped inside the doorway, a copy of the **_**New York Daily News, **_**opened to the Metro page. The article took me almost an hour to read, because the angrier I got, the more the words floated around on the page.**

_**GIRL AND MOTHER STILL MISSING AFTER FREAK CAR ACCIDENT**_

"Oh gods, this can't be good." Katie said.

_**BY EILEEN SMYTHE**_

_**Sally Jackson and daughter Persephany are still missing one week after their mysterious disappearance. The family's badly burned '78 Camaro was discovered last Saturday on a north Long Island road with the roof ripped off and the front axle broken. The car had flipped and skidded for several hundred feet before exploding.**_

"Wonder how did they explain that one?" Nico said with a raised eyebrow.

_**Mother and daughter had gone for a weekend vacation to Montauk, but left hastily, under mysterious circumstances. Small traces of blood were found in the car and near the scene of the wreck, but there were no other signs of the missing Jacksons. Residents in the rural area reported seeing nothing unusual around the time of the accident. Ms. Jackson's husband, Gabe Ugliano, claims that his stepdaughter, Persephany Jackson, is a troubled child who has been kicked out of numerous boarding schools and has expressed violent tendencies in the past.**_

"I'll show you violent tendencies, jackass," I muttered.

Nico snickered.

_**Police would not say whether daughter Persephany is a suspect in her mother's disappearance, but they have not ruled out foul play. Below are recent pictures of Sally Jackson and Persephany. Police urge anyone with information to call the following toll-free crime-stoppers hotline.**_

"It must've been even worse that they also had the nerve to call you by your first name" Connor said.

"Believe me, I wanted to strangle someone" I huffed.

**The phone number was circled in black marker.**

**I wadded up the paper and threw it away, then flopped down in my bunk bed in the middle of my empty cabin.**

**"Lights out," I told myself miserably.**

**That night, I had my worst dream yet.**

Poseidon looked at me concerned.

"Don't worry Daddy, it wasn't that bad" I said, trying to reassure him.

**I was running along the beach in a storm. This time, there was a city behind me. Not New York. The sprawl was different: buildings spread farther apart, palm trees and low hills in the distance.**

**About a hundred yards down the surf, two men were fighting. They looked like TV wrestlers, muscular, with beards and long hair. Both wore flowing Greek tunics, one trimmed in blue, and the other in green. They grappled with each other, wrestled, kicked and head-butted, and every time they connected, lightning flashed, the sky grew darker, and the wind rose.**

**I had to stop them. I didn't know why. But the harder I ran, the more the wind blew me back, until I was running in place, my heels digging uselessly in the sand.**

"Kronos" the gods muttered

**Over the roar of the storm, I could hear the blue-robed one yelling at the green-robed one, "**_**Give it back! Give it back!" **_**Like a kindergartner fighting over a toy.**

"I am not like a kindergartner! How dare you! Poseidon, maybe. But me? Never!" Zeus ranted, making me bite the insides of my cheeks, to refrain from laughing.

"Suuuuure dad" Apollo said sarcastically.

**The waves got bigger, crashing into the beach, spraying me with salt.**

**I yelled, "**_**Stop it! Stop fighting!"**_

"Silly Percy, they can't hear you! You're dreaming!" Travis said, smiling like a little kid.

I shared a worried look with his father. Seems like his son's stupidity knows no boundaries.

**The ground shook. Laughter came from somewhere under the earth, and a voice so deep and evil it turned my blood to ice**_**.**_

"_**Come down, little heroine, **_**the voice crooned. **_**Come down!"**_

**The sand split beneath me, opening up a crevice straight down to the center of the earth. My feet slipped, and darkness swallowed me.**

**I woke up, sure I was falling.**

"I hate those kind of dreams! They creep the hell out of me!" Annabeth said, eyes wide.

I gave her a solemn smile. I hate those dreams as well.

**I was still in bed in cabin three. My body told me it was morning, but it was dark outside, and thunder rolled across the hills. A storm was brewing. I hadn't dreamed that.**

**I heard a clopping sound at the door, a hoof knocking on the threshold.**

**"Come in?"**

**Grover trotted inside, looking worried. "Mr. D wants to see you."**

**"Why?"**

**"He wants to kill... I mean, I'd better let him tell you."**

"How do you let that slip?" Conner asked, snickering.

Grover blushed deeply.

**Nervously, I got dressed **

"In front of Grover? You little slut!" Silena said, waggling her eyes.

With a war cry, I launched a strawberry at her. With my perfect aim, I managed to throw it in her mouth.

"Mmmmm, strawberries!" she said, licking her lips.

I gave her a pout; she had just eaten my strawberry!

**And followed, sure that I was in huge trouble.**

**For days, I'd been half expecting a summons to the Big House. Now that I was declared a daughter of Poseidon, one of the Big Three gods who weren't supposed to have kids, I figured it was a crime for me just to be alive.**

I sighed. I remember Thalia said something like that before.

**The other gods had probably been debating the best way to punish me for existing, and now Mr. D was ready to deliver their verdict.**

"Aren't you dramatic" Hades smirked at me.

I flipped him off, making him chuckle and everyone else save Nico look shocked.

**Over Long Island Sound, the sky looked like ink soup coming to a boil. A hazy curtain of rain was coming in our direction. I asked Grover if we needed an umbrella.**

**"No," he said. "It never rains here unless we want it to."**

**I pointed at the storm. "What the heck is that, then?"**

**He glanced uneasily at the sky. "It'll pass around us. Bad weather always does."**

"Not this time!" Travis said in a singsong voice.

**I realized he was right. In the week I'd been here, it had never even been overcast. The few rain clouds I'd seen had skirted right around the edges of the valley.**

**But this storm ... this one was huge.**

**At the volleyball pit, the kids from Apollo's cabin were playing a morning game against the satyrs. Dionysus's twins were walking around in the strawberry fields, making the plants grow. **

"Cas" I sniffed sadly. He always gave me strawberries whenever I saw him.

**Everybody was going about their normal business, but they looked tense. They kept their eyes on the storm.**

"I could never imagine a thunder storm at camp before that. It was strange to see" Malcolm said, many of the campers nodding in agreements.

**Grover and I walked up to the front porch of the Big House. Dionysus sat at the pinochle table in his tiger-striped Hawaiian shirt with his Diet Coke, just as he had on my first day. Chiron sat across the table in his fake wheel chair. They were playing against invisible opponents-two sets of cards hovering in the air.**

**"Well, well," Mr. D said without looking up. "Our little celebrity."**

"He sounds like Snape!" I burst out.

"Snape?" many people said confused.

"Oh yes, I forgot that most of you are idiotic losers who don't read Harry Potter. So uncultured" I mumbled.

Annabeth was fighting off a smile.

**I waited.**

**"Come closer," Mr. D said. "And don't expect me to bow down to you, mortal, just because old Barnacle-Beard is your father."**

**A net of lightning flashed across the clouds. Thunder shook the windows of the house.**

"Did Poseidon just make thunder?" Travis asked.

"I was upset!" Dad whined, making me giggle.

He reached over and tugged on my hair playfully, letting a smile break out.

**"Blah, blah, blah," Dionysus said.**

**Chiron feigned interest in his pinochle cards. Grover cowered by the railing, his hooves clopping back and forth.**

**"If I had my way," Dionysus said, "I would cause your molecules to erupt in flames. We'd sweep up the ashes and be done with a lot of trouble. But Chiron seems to feel this would be against my mission at this cursed camp: to keep you little brats safe from harm."**

"If he could, he would probably kill us all, when ever we pissed him off." I stage-whispered to Nico.

"Shhh! You don't want him to hear you!" he whispered back.

Mr. D glared at us.

**"Spontaneous combustion **_**is **_**a form of harm, Mr. D," Chiron put in.**

**"Nonsense," Dionysus said. "Girl wouldn't feel a thing. Nevertheless, I've agreed to restrain myself I'm thinking of turning you into a dolphin instead, sending you back to your father."**

"He threatened to turn me into a owl once." Malcolm said.

"Ha! Dolphins are so much cuter than owls!" I said, with my nose in the air.

"Well now, someone's prideful" he snarked.

**"Mr. D—" Chiron warned.**

**"Oh, all right," Dionysus relented. "There's one more option. But it's deadly foolishness." Dionysus rose, and the invisible players' cards dropped to the table. "I'm off to Olympus for the emergency meeting. If the girl is still here when I get back, I'll turn her into an Atlantic bottlenose. Do you understand? And Persephany Jackson, if you're at all smart, you'll see that's a much more sensible choice than what Chiron feels you must do."**

"Wow, that was reassuring. It's not like I was half scared out of my mind already. Thank you very much!" I said sarcastically, to Mr. D.

He shrugged, "I have more important things to do than make sure a little girl stays happy" he said, nonchalantly.

I looked over at Nico and did a one armed shrug.

"At least he's honest," I said.

**Dionysus picked up a playing card, twisted it, and it became a plastic rectangle. A credit card? No. A security pass.**

**He snapped his fingers.**

**The air seemed to fold and bend around him. He became a hologram, then a wind, and then he was gone, leaving only the smell of fresh-pressed grapes lingering behind.**

**Chiron smiled at me, but he looked tired and strained. "Sit, Percy, please. And Grover."**

"**I think I'll stand," I said, giving him a hard look.**

"I was upset that he didn't do anything while I was lonely and miserable" I said to the confused looks.

**Chiron laid his cards on the table, a winning hand he hadn't gotten to use.**

**"Tell me, Percy," he said. "What did you make of the hellhound?"**

**Just hearing the name made me shudder.**

**Chiron probably expected me to say, "**_**Hell, I didn't feel a thing. I've been attacked by more vicious things than a little dog." **_

**But I didn't feel like being sarcastic.**

"Annie? Not being sarcastic? Wow, it's like a dumb Annabeth. Impossible to believe!" Nico laughed.

"At least I'm not scared of teenage water creatures!" I sneered, making him blush.

**"It scared me I guess," I said. "If you hadn't shot it, I'd probably be dead. Though, apparently that would be better than what you planned on me doing. At least that's what Mr. D thinks."**

"You want to know what's effing terrifying?" Travis said. "Being chased by ten mooses. That happened to me once."

"Its mossi." Katie said.

"No eff off! Everyone knows its Meese!" Conner stated.

I watched this conversation amused, my friends are really moronic.

**"You'll meet worse, Percy. Far worse, before you're done."**

**"Done ... with what?"**

**"Your quest, of course. Will you accept it?"**

**I glanced at Grover, who was crossing his fingers.**

**"That depends," I said, "What is it?"**

**Chiron grimaced. "Well, that's the hard part, the details."**

**Thunder rumbled across the valley. The storm clouds had now reached the edge of the beach. As far as I could see, the sky and the sea were boiling together.**

**"Poseidon and Zeus," I said. "They're fighting over something valuable ... something that was stolen, aren't they?"**

**Chiron and Grover exchanged looks.**

**Chiron sat forward in his wheelchair. "How did you know that?"**

"Because...I can't think of a funny reason." Travis said.

"Than don't speak" I told him, getting annoyed at the interruptions.

**"The weather since Christmas has been weird, like the sea and the sky are fighting. Then Chase started running her mouth about a theft. It doesn't take an idiot to put two and two together.**

**I've also been having these strange dreams."**

**"I knew it," Grover said.**

**"Hush, satyr," Chiron ordered.**

**"But it is her quest!" Grover's eyes were bright with excitement. "It must be!"**

"It seems that he was more excited for this than you were" Thalia said amused.

"Oh yes, facing the prospect of being attacked by monsters every other mile really psyched me up" I said sardonically.

**"Only the Oracle can determine." Chiron stroked his bristly beard. "Nevertheless, Percy, you are correct. Your father and Zeus are having their worst quarrel in centuries. They are fighting over something valuable that was stolen. To be precise: a lightning bolt."**

**I laughed, "Is that it? Here I am, thinking my father stole Zeus's shirt or something"**

"Well, sorry that I don't deal with shock very well" I huffed.

"Awe, it's alright Annie, I still love you" Nico mocked me.

I gave him a cold look, which was somewhat ruined as I was pouting.

**"Do not take this lightly," Chiron warned. "I'm not talking about some tinfoil-covered zigzag you'd see in a second-grade play. I'm talking about a two-foot-long cylinder of high-grade celestial bronze, capped on both ends with god-level explosives."**

**"Okay?"**

"Okay? That's all you have to say? Okay?" Zeus said half-annoyed half-amused.

"Meh" I shrugged.

**"Zeus's master bolt," Chiron said, getting worked up now with my blatant dismissal. "The symbol of his power, from which all other lightning bolts are patterned. The first weapon made by the Cyclopes for the war against the Titans, the bolt that sheered the top off Mount Etna and hurled Kronos from his throne; the master bolt, which packs enough power to make mortal hydrogen bombs look like firecrackers."**

**"And it's missing?"**

**"Stolen," Chiron said.**

**"By who?"**

**"By **_**whom**_**," Chiron corrected.**

**Once a teacher, always a teacher.**

"Dude, this is not the time for grammar corrections. This is some serious shit!" Nico said, getting into the story.

**"By you."**

"**Me?" I said amused. When I was little, I wasn't even able to take a cookie before dinner without getting caught.**

"You've gotten a lot sneakier over the years. Remember that time when we snuck out of the house to g-" Will started, before I jumped up and slapped my hand over his mouth.

"Disregard that last part," I said, blushing.

During the school year, Will had come to my school for a performance, than after we snuck out to go to a party, resulting in us both getting smashed.

My father raised his eyebrow, making me blush even deeper.

**"At least"—Chiron held up a hand—"that's what Zeus thinks. During the winter solstice, at the last council of the gods, Zeus and Poseidon had an argument. The usual nonsense: 'Mother Rhea always liked you best,' Air disasters are more spectacular than sea disasters,' etcetera. Afterward, Zeus realized his master bolt was missing, taken from the throne room under his very nose. He immediately blamed Poseidon. Now, a god cannot usurp another god's symbol of power directly—that is forbidden by the most ancient of divine laws. But Zeus believes your father convinced a human hero to take it."**

**"What used do I have with a—"**

**"Patience and listen, child," Chiron said.**

"Two things that I can't do" I sighed.

**"Zeus has good reason to be suspicious. The forges of the Cyclopes are under the ocean, which gives Poseidon some influence over the makers of his brother's lightning. Zeus believes Poseidon has taken the master bolt, and is now secretly having the Cyclopes build an arsenal of illegal copies, which might be used to topple Zeus from his throne.**

"I have to admit, he has a good point, I started, Zeus starting to smile, "but it was totally wrong and idiotic of him to think," I finished, the smile whipped off of his face.

**The only thing Zeus wasn't sure about was which hero Poseidon used to steal the bolt. Now Poseidon has openly claimed you as his daughter. You were in New York over the winter holidays. You could easily have snuck into Olympus. Zeus believes he has found his thief."**

**"Zeus is crazy! Why the hell would I help someone who I don't even know?"**

**Chiron and Grover glanced nervously at the sky. The clouds didn't seem to be parting around us, as Grover had promised. They were rolling straight over our valley, sealing us in like a coffin lid.**

"That's not morbid at all," Thalia snorted.

**"Er, Percy...?" Grover said. "We don't use the **_**C**_**-word to describe the Lord of the Sky."**

**"Perhaps **_**paranoid," **_**Chiron suggested. "Then again, Poseidon has tried to unseat Zeus before. I believe that was question thirty-eight on your final exam..." He looked at me as if he actually expected me to remember question thirty-eight.**

"How could you not remember the question?" Annabeth teased.

I stuck my tongue out at her.

**How could anyone accuse me of stealing a god's weapon? I couldn't even steal a slice of pizza from Gabe's poker party without getting busted. Chiron was waiting for an answer.**

**"Something about a golden net?" I guessed. "Poseidon and Hera and a few other gods they trapped Zeus and wouldn't let him out until he promised to be a better ruler, or something"**

"You just summed up a big event in like 31 words" Will laughed.

"I have a way with words," I said cockily.

"I'll say," he snorted.

**"Correct," Chiron said. "And Zeus has never trusted Poseidon since." I snorted, I wouldn't trust him either "Of course, Poseidon denies stealing the master bolt. He took great offense at the accusation. The two have been arguing back and forth for months, threatening war. And now, you've come along—the proverbial last straw."**

**"But I'm just a kid. Kay, if they expected that Luke or someone stole it, that I'd understand"**

"Called it! I'm brilliant, aren't I?" I said proudly.

"What's she going on about now?" Athena asked Artemis.

"About how she was right and that Luke was the one to steal the master bolt" she replied calmly.

**"Percy," Grover cut in, "if you were Zeus, and you already thought your brother was plotting to overthrow you, then your brother suddenly admitted he had broken the sacred oath he took after World War II, that he's fathered a new mortal hero who might be used as a weapon against you... Wouldn't that put a twist in your toga?"**

**"But I didn't do anything. Poseidon, didn't really have this master bolt stolen, did he?"**

**Chiron sighed. "Most thinking observers would agree that thievery is not Poseidon's style. **

"Nah, that's me all the way!" Hermes boasted.

**But the Sea God is too proud to try convincing Zeus of that. Zeus has demanded that Poseidon return the bolt by the summer solstice. That's June twenty-first, ten days from now. Poseidon wants an apology for being called a thief by the same date. I hoped that diplomacy might prevail, that Hera or Demeter or Hestia would make the two brothers see sense. But your arrival has inflamed Zeus's temper. Now neither god will back down. Unless someone intervenes, unless the master bolt is found and returned to Zeus before the solstice, there will be war. And do you know what a full-fledged war would look like, Percy?"**

**"Bad?" I guessed.**

"You have such a way with words" Nico chuckled.

**"Imagine the world in chaos. Nature at war with itself. Olympians forced to choose sides between Zeus and Poseidon. Destruction. Carnage. Millions dead. Western civilization turned into a battleground so big it will make the Trojan War look like a water-balloon fight."**

**"So, really bad," I repeated.**

**"And you, Percy Jackson, would be the first to feel Zeus's wrath."**

**It started to rain.**

**Volleyball players stopped their game and stared in stunned silence at the sky.**

_**I **_**had brought this storm to Half-Blood Hill. Zeus was punishing the whole camp because of me. I was furious.**

"As you should be. First that shit-load of information gets dropped on you, and then it starts to rain? That's just bad luck" Apollo deadpanned.

**"So I have to find the damn bolt," I said. "And return it to Zeus."**

**"What better peace offering," Chiron said, "than to have the daughter of Poseidon return Zeus's property?"**

**"If Poseidon doesn't have it, where is the stupid thing?"**

"Stupid? Did you just call the lightning bolt stupid?" Daddy said surprised.

I shrugged.

**"I believe I know." Chiron's expression was grim. "Part of a prophecy I had years ago ... well, some of the lines make sense to me, now. But before I can say more, you must officially take up the quest. You must seek the counsel of the Oracle."**

**"Can't you tell me where the bolt is now?"**

**"If I did, you would be too afraid to accept the challenge."**

"**Fair reasoning."**

**"You agree then?"**

**I looked at Grover, who nodded encouragingly.**

**Easy for him. I was the one Zeus wanted to kill.**

**"All right," I said. "I guess it's better than being turned into a dolphin."**

"I think being a Dolphin would be better" I mumbled to Nico and Thalia.

**"Then it's time you consulted the Oracle," Chiron said. "Go upstairs, Percy Jackson, to the attic. When you come back down, assuming you're still sane, we will talk more."**

**Four flights up, the stairs ended under a green trap door.**

**I pulled the cord. The door swung down, and a wooden ladder clattered into place.**

**The warm air from above smelled like mildew and rotten wood and a smell I remembered from biology class. Reptiles. The smell of snakes.**

**I held my breath and climbed.**

'It smelled really bad up there, ever heard of house keeping?" I muttered.

**The attic was filled with Greek hero junk: armor stands covered in cobwebs; once-bright shields pitted with rust; old leather steamer trunks plastered with stickers saying ITHAKA, CIRCE'S ISLE, and LAND OF THE AMAZONS. One long table was stacked with glass jars filled with pickled **_**things**_—**severed hairy claws, huge yellow eyes, and various other parts of monsters. A dusty mounted trophy on the wall looked like a giant snake's head, but with horns and a full set of shark's teeth. The plaque read, HYDRA HEAD #1, WOODSTOCK, N.Y., 1969.**

"That was pretty cool to see," I admitted.

**By the window, sitting on a wooden tripod stool, was the most gruesome memento of all: a mummy.**

"If only it was a memento." Clarisse grumbled.

**Not the wrapped-in-cloth kind, but a human female body shriveled to a husk. She wore a tie-dyed sundress, lots of beaded necklaces, and a headband over long black hair. The skin of her face was thin and leathery over her skull, and her eyes were glassy white slits, as if marbles had replaced the real eyes; she'd been dead a long, long time.**

It unsettled Apollo to hear about his poor Oracle. She should have been put to rest a long time ago.

**Looking at her sent chills up my back. And that was before she sat up on her stool and opened her mouth. A green mist poured from the mummy's mouth, coiling over the floor in thick tendrils, hissing like twenty thousand snakes. I stumbled over myself trying to get to the trap door, but it slammed shut.**

"How ominous" Apollo said.

**Inside my head, I heard a voice, slithering into one ear and coiling around my brain: **_**I am the spirit of Delphi, speaker of the prophecies of Phoebus Apollo, slayer of the mighty Python. Approach, seeker, and ask.**_

**I wanted to say, **_**No thanks, wrong door, just looking for the bathroom. **_**But I forced myself to take a deep breath.**

"Gods, I sound like a wimp" I pouted.

"Aw, it's alright. You're my wimp" Nico said cheekily.

I rolled my eyes and elbowed him lightly.

**The mummy wasn't alive. She was some kind of gruesome receptacle for something else, the power that was now swirling around me in the green mist. But its presence didn't feel evil, like my demonic math teacher Mrs. Dodds or the Minotaur. It felt more like the Three Fates I'd seen knitting the yarn outside the highway fruit stand: ancient, powerful, and definitely **_**not **_**human. But not particularly interested in killing me, either.**

"**So Miss Mummy, how do I get this stupid bolt?" I asked**

"Wow, way to put it bluntly" Connor blinked.

**The mist swirled more thickly, collecting right in front of me and around the table with the pickled monster-part jars. Suddenly there were four people sitting around a table. My mom, my 5th grade best friend Cassia, Grover and a strange man with dark hair. Poseidon.**

**My fists clenched, though I knew this little group couldn't be real. It was an illusion, made out of mist.**

**Ma turned toward me and spoke in the rasping voice of the Oracle: **_**You shall go west, and face the god who has turned.**_

"Ares" Grover muttered

**Grover looked up and said in the same voice: **_**You shall find what was stolen, and see it safely returned.**_

"The bolt and the helm." I said under my breath.

**Cassia then said: **_**You shall be betrayed by one who you call a friend.**_

"Luke" Annabeth sniffed.

**Finally, Poseidon delivered the worst line of all: **_**And you shall fail to save what matters most, in the end.**_

"Ma" I said sadly.

**The figures began to dissolve. At first I was too stunned to say anything, but as the mist retreated, coiling into a huge green serpent and slithering back into the mouth of the mummy, I cried, "Wait! What do you mean? Which friend? What will I fail to save?"**

**The tail of the mist snake disappeared into the mummy's mouth. She reclined back against the wall. Her mouth closed tight, as if it hadn't been open in a hundred years. The attic was silent again, abandoned, nothing but a room full of mementos.**

**I got the feeling that I could stand here until I had cobwebs, too, and I wouldn't learn anything else.**

**My audience with the Oracle was over.**

**"Well?" Chiron asked me when I came down the stairs.**

**I slumped into a chair at the pinochle table. "She said I would retrieve what was stolen."**

"That's not good enough. You need to tell him the exact wording" Apollo said caught up.

"Anyone wanna tell him he's talking to a book? I asked.

**Grover sat forward, chewing excitedly on the remains of a Diet Coke can. "That's great!"**

**"What did the Oracle say **_**exactly?" **_**Chiron pressed. "This is important."**

**"She said I would go west and face a god who had turned. I would retrieve what was stolen and see it safely returned."**

**"I knew it," Grover said.**

**Chiron didn't look satisfied. "Anything else?"**

**I didn't want to tell him. It wasn't any of his business.**

**What friend would betray me? I didn't have that many.**

**And the last line—I would fail to save what mattered most. What kind of Oracle would send me on a quest and tell me, **_**Oh, by the way, you'll fail**_

**"Nah," I said. "That's about it."**

"You shouldn't lie" Apollo said appalled.

**He studied my face. "Very well, Percy. But know this: the Oracle's words often have double meanings. Don't dwell on them too much. The truth is not always clear until events come to pass."**

**I got the feeling he knew I was holding back something bad, and he was trying to make me feel better. It wasn't working.**

**"Okay," I said, changing topics. "So where do I go? Who's this god in the west?"**

**"Ah, think, Percy," Chiron said. "If Zeus and Poseidon weaken each other in a war, who stands to gain?"**

**"Somebody else who wants to take over" I guessed.**

**"Yes, quite. Someone who harbors a grudge, who has been unhappy with his lot since the world was divided eons ago, whose kingdom would grow powerful with the deaths of millions. Someone who hates his brothers for forcing him into an oath to have no more children, an oath that both of them have now broken."**

"That's soo unfair! I mean, you both get mad at me for torturing your kids, yet you kill their mother and force me to hide them. Even though they wee born before oath was made!" Hades rambled.

"Shame on you!" I said dramatically.

**I thought about my dreams, the evil voice that had spoken from under the ground. "Hades."**

**Chiron nodded. "The Lord of the Dead is the only possibility."**

**A scrap of aluminum dribbled out of Grover's mouth. "Whoa, wait. Wh-what?"**

**"A Fury came after Percy," Chiron reminded him. "She watched the young lady until she was sure of her identity, then tried to kill her. Furies obey only one lord: Hades."**

**"Yes, but—but Hades hates **_**all **_**heroes," Grover protested. "Especially if he has found out Percy is a daughter of Poseidon..."**

"Just like when he found out that Thalia was a daughter of Zeus." Annabeth said.

**"A hellhound got into the forest," Chiron continued.**

**"Those can only be summoned from the Fields of Punishment, and it had to be summoned by someone within the camp. Hades must have a spy here.**

"Or Kronos of course." I snarked.

**He must suspect Poseidon will try to use Percy to clear his name. Hades would very much like to kill this young half-blood before he can take on the quest."**

**"Great," I said, faux- cheery. "That's two major gods who want to kill me."**

**"But a quest to..." Grover swallowed. "I mean, couldn't the master bolt be in some place like Maine? Maine's very nice this time of year."**

"If only." I mumbled.

**"Hades sent a minion to steal the master bolt," Chiron insisted. "He hid it in the Underworld, knowing full well that Zeus would blame Poseidon.**

"He was so confident in something that was wrong," Katie said

I snorted," I think that's the first time Chiron's ever been wrong"

"It probably is! I've never heard of Chiron being wrong before!" Will said.

Travis laughed, "You know, besides that one time that he thought letting the party ponies come to camp"

"I remember the look on Chiron's face when they trashed the camp and wore dresses and had paintball guns" Annabeth giggled.

"That explains the centaur in a prom dress on your necklace" I laughed.

**I don't pretend to under stand the Lord of the Dead's motives perfectly, or why he chose this time to start a war, but one thing is certain. Percy must go to the Underworld, find the master bolt, and reveal the truth."**

**A strange fire burned in my stomach. The weirdest thing was: it wasn't fear. It was anticipation. The desire for revenge. Hades had tried to kill me three times so far, with the Fury, the Minotaur, and the hellhound. It was his fault my mother had disappeared in a flash of light. Now he was trying to frame Poseidon and I for a theft we hadn't committed.**

**I was ready to kick some god ass.**

"I'm sorry you had to go through all of this" Daddy said with a sad smile.

I shrugged, "Who else would've helped?"

**Besides, if my mother was in the Underworld …**

"**Whoa, girl!", said the small part of my brain that was still sane. "You're a kid. Hades is a god". Grover was trembling. He'd started eating pinochle cards like potato chips. The poor guy needed to complete a quest with me so he could get his searcher's license, whatever that was, but how could I ask him to do this quest, especially when the Oracle said I was destined to fail? This was suicide.**

"Pshh! Suicide's my middle name!" I said cockily.

"Is that why you screamed like a little girl when you were pushed off of a slide?" Grover asked amused.

I blushed at the laughter of the campers and gods alike.

"That was one time! I was twelve and wasn't prepared!" I said defensively.

**"Look, if we know its Hades," I told Chiron, "Why can't we just tell the other gods? Zeus or Poseidon could go down to the Underworld and bust some heads."**

"Cause gods can't go to the others realm without an invitation." Travis said. We all stared at him with open mouths.

"What?" He asked.

"You just said something smart!" Katie said astounded.

"Hey! Just because I like to prank people, doesn't mean I'm a total idiot!" He said upset.

**"Suspecting and knowing are not the same," Chiron said. "Besides, even if the other gods suspect Hades—and I imagine Poseidon does—they couldn't retrieve the bolt them selves. Gods cannot cross each other's territories except by invitation. That is another ancient rule. Heroes, on the other hand, have certain privileges. They can go anywhere, challenge anyone, as long as they're bold enough and strong enough to do it.**

"Or stupid enough" Athena said, shrugging.

"That too" I agreed

**No god can be held responsible for a hero's actions. Why do you think the gods always operate through humans?"**

**"You're saying I'm being used."**

**"I'm saying its no accident Poseidon has claimed you now. It's a very risky gamble, but he's in a desperate situation. He needs you."**

"You okay?" Nico whispered in my ear at my pensive face.

His warm breath hit my cheek, making me shiver slightly.

"I'll be fine. It's just… I was so angry and upset and hurt. Then, Chiron springs on me that my dad does actually care and needs my help. It was hard to admit that I was glad and proud that I could do something for him, to prove that I wasn't totally useless and that him leaving wasn't hard on me. That I didn't care that he only came into contact with me 'cause he needed something done," I confess.

He sighed and wrapped his arms around me, pulling me into his warm embrace.

**My dad needs me.** **Emotions rolled around inside me like bits of glass in a kaleidoscope. I didn't know whether to feel resentful or grateful or happy or angry. Poseidon had ignored me for twelve years. Now suddenly he needed me. That is a risky gamble. If my mom weren't in danger, I probably wouldn't care. But, because of the circumstances…**

Daddy looked upset, and I wanted to cheer him up, but these are things that he needs to know. These are things that all of the gods need to know.

**I looked at Chiron. "You've known I was Poseidon's daughter all along, haven't you?"**

**"I had my suspicions. As I said ... I've spoken to the Oracle, too."**

**I got the feeling there was a lot he wasn't telling me about his prophecy, but I decided I couldn't worry about that right now. After all, I was holding back information too. Even though this secret can't ruin life itself, but oh well.**

"You're awfully calm about this" Daddy said surprised.

"Well panicking and pitching a fit isn't going to get the job done" I shrug.

**"So let me get this straight," I said. "I'm supposed go to the Underworld and confront the Lord of the Dead."**

**"Check," Chiron said.**

**"Find the most powerful weapon in the universe."**

**"Check."**

**"And get it back to Olympus before the summer solstice, in ten days."**

**"That's about right."**

**I looked at Grover, who gulped down the ace of hearts.**

**"Did I mention that Maine is very nice this time of year?" he asked weakly.**

**"You don't have to go," I told him. "I can't ask that of you.**

"Aww! You're so sweet and caring!" Aphrodite squealed.

"He's one of my best friends, I couldn't let him be in danger because of me," I said softly.

Grover smiled at me.

**"Oh..." He shifted his hooves. "No ... it's just that satyrs and underground places ... well..."**

**He took a deep breath, then stood, brushing the shredded cards and aluminum bits off his T-shirt. "You saved my life, Percy. If ... if you're serious about wanting me along, I won't let you down."**

**I felt so relieved I wanted to cry,**

I glared at Conner and Travis before they could say anything. I'm a girl; I'm allowed to cry.

**Though I didn't think that would be very heroic.**

"Actually it would be. It would show that you're in touch with your humility and that you're not afraid to just break down. It's quite brave" Artemis smiled at me, drawing a shocked smile to my own lips.

"Thank you" I said quietly.

**Grover was the only friend I'd ever had for longer than a few months. I wasn't sure what good a satyr could do against the forces of the dead, but I felt better knowing he'd be with me.**

**"All the way, Goat-boy." I turned to Chiron. "So where do we go? The Oracle just said to go west."**

**"The entrance to the Underworld is always in the west. It moves from age to age, just like Olympus. Right now, of course, it's in America."**

**"Where?"**

**Chiron looked surprised. "I thought that would be obvious enough. The entrance to the Underworld is in Los Angeles."**

" I don't know why he expected a newly dubbed demi-god to know where the entrance to Hell is" I said confused.

"Who knows? It's Chiron we're talking about." Nico said and I nodded in agreement.

**"Oh," I said. "Naturally. So we just get on a plane—"**

"No!" multiple people shrieked loudly, Daddy along with them.

"Whoa! Chill! We didn't take a damn plane!" I said with my arms raised in surrender.

**"No!" Grover shrieked. "Percy, what are you thinking? Have you ever been on a plane in your life?"**

**I shook my head, feeling embarrassed. My mom had never taken me anywhere by plane. She'd always said we didn't have the money. Besides, her parents had died in a plane crash.**

"That in itself is a good reason to not go by plane," Thalia said quietly.

**"Percy, think," Chiron said. "You are the daughter of the Sea God. Your father's bitterest rival is Zeus, Lord of the Sky. Your mother knew better than to trust you in an airplane. You would be in Zeus's domain. You would never come down again alive."**

**Overhead, lightning crackled. Thunder boomed.**

**I sighed, trust Poseidon to make things even more difficult for me at the moment. I knew I wasn't being fair, but at the moment I couldn't bring myself to care.**

"Sorry Daddy" I said abashed.

He waved my apology off with a small smile.

"**So by land I guess" I huffed annoyed.**

**"That's right," Chiron said. "Two companions may accompany you. Grover is one. The other has already volunteered, if you will accept her help."**

**"Gee," I said, feigning surprise. "Who else would be stupid enough to volunteer for a quest like this?"**

**The air shimmered behind Chiron.**

**Annabeth became visible, stuffing her Yankees cap into her back pocket.**

"**I should have suspected, the idiot's Chase! Your mother must be so proud. Her daughter, volunteering for a dangerous quest, who'd a thought" I sneered.**

Athena was positively steaming.

"I guess I deserved that," Annabeth said, chuckling, "I was a bit of a bitch wasn't I?"

"A bit?" I asked, eyebrows raised.

"Oh shut up!" she said amused.

**"I've been waiting a long time for a quest, seaweed brain," she said.**

**"Athena is no fan of Poseidon, but if you're going to save the world, I'm the best person to keep you from messing up."**

**"If you say so yourself," I said. "I suppose you have a plan, ol' wise one?"**

"Ol' Wise One?" Malcolm chuckled.

"Wise girl sounded stupid, and I didn't hate her enough to call her sweetheart or princess" I shrugged.

"Thank the gods, I would've tried to kill you if you did" Annabeth told me, grinning.

"Oh no need to thank us!" Apollo and Hermes chimed, cheerfully.

I rolled my eyes, gods were such children.

**Her cheeks colored. "Do you want my help or not?"**

**No. I'd rather have Luke, at least we got along. And he wasn't an annoying miss know-it-all. But I wasn't gonna say that in front of Chiron**

"Ouch" Annabeth said good-naturedly.

"Sorry?" I more asked, than said.

"I had it coming," she said, waving me off.

**"A trio," I said. "I guess that'll work."**

**"Excellent," Chiron said. "This afternoon, we can take you as far as the bus terminal in Manhattan. After that, you are on your own."**

**Lightning flashed. Rain poured down on the meadows that were never supposed to have violent weather.**

**"No time to waste," Chiron said. "I think you should all get packing."**

* * *

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

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So that's it, I guess. So, question of the chapter, what's your favorite part about Christmas and what are some Christmas traditions in your family?


	10. Chapter 10: I Ruin A Perfectly Good Bus

Erhm…. Hello there. I know half of you don't even read this, but I'm sorry for disappearing. Life's catching up. Again, Special Thanks to everyone for putting up with me. Some parts in this chapter has quotes from Kobra Kid96. (…) means I skipped part of the actual story. Lego house by Ed Sheeren helped writing this.

Disclaimer: I'm sure Rick never neglected his story like this.

* * *

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

* * *

"I shall read" Hades announced.

With a shrug, Hermes passed him the book.

**I RUIN A PERFECTLY GOOD BUS**

"What'd you do that for?" Travis asked with wide eyes.

**It didn't take me long to pack. I decided to leave the Minotaur horn in my cabin, which left me only an extra change of clothes and a toothbrush to stuff in a backpack Grover had found for me.**

"So he just found a backpack conveniently laying around" Conner said.

"Or maybe he stole it." a Hermes kid said smiling.

"Or maybe Chiron gave it to him" I said amused.

**The camp store loaned me one hundred dollars in mortal money and twenty golden drachmas. These coins were as big as Girl Scout cookies and had images of various Greek gods stamped on one side and the Empire State Building on the other. The ancient mortal drachmas had been silver, Chiron told us, but Olympians never used less than pure gold.**

"Why should we? We're gods! Nothing less than the best for us, I always say!" Apollo grinned.

**Chiron said the coins might come in handy for non-mortal transactions—whatever that meant. He gave Annabeth and me each a canteen of nectar and a Ziploc bag full of ambrosia squares, to be used only in emergencies, if we were seriously hurt. It was god food, Chiron reminded us. It would cure us of almost any injury, but it was lethal to mortals. Too much of it would make a half-blood very, very feverish. An overdose would burn us up, literally.**

"Has that ever happened? I asked.

"Not that I remember" Annabeth replied.

**Annabeth was bringing her magic Yankees cap, which she told me had been a twelfth-birthday present from her mom. Funny thing is, I didn't actually care, I was just trying to be polite.**

"I can be polite!" I said crossly at all the looks I was getting.

"Don't worry Annie, I believe you" Nico chuckled.

I gave him a stony look.

**She carried a book on famous classical architecture, written in Ancient Greek, to read when she got bored, and a long bronze knife, hidden in her shirt sleeve.**

**I was sure the knife would get us busted the first time we went through a metal detector, if it wasn't celestial bronze of course.**

"That'd be hilarious. You just made it pass a pack of monsters only to be bested by a metal detector." Thalia laughed.

"That would be quite the anti-climatic quest. Ending up in jail" I snicker.

**Grover wore his fake feet and his pants to pass as human. He wore a green rasta-style cap, because when it rained his curly hair flattened and you could just see the tips of his horns. His bright orange backpack was full of scrap metal and apples to snack on. In his pocket was a set of reed pipes his daddy goat had carved for him, even though he only knew two songs: Mozart's Piano Concerto no. 12 and Hilary Duff's "So Yesterday,"** **both of which sounded pretty bad on reed pipes.**

"Wow, thanks Perce" Grover said sarcastically.

"Haha, no problem Grover!" I grinned.

**We waved good-bye to the other campers, took one last look at the strawberry fields, the ocean, and the Big House, then hiked up Half-Blood Hill to the tall pine tree that used to be Thalia, daughter of Zeus.**

"Can you stop mentioning that?" Thalia asked annoyed.

**Chiron was waiting for us in his wheelchair. Next to him stood the surfer dude I'd seen when I was recovering in the sick room. According to Grover, the guy was the camp's head of security. He supposedly had eyes all over his body so he could never be surprised. Today, though, he was wearing a chauffeur's uniform, so I could only see extra peepers on his hands, face and neck.**

"Its kind of strange. How does he do anything without poking himself in the eyes? And if he cries, would he flood the place? What about swimming? How does he not get water in his eyes?" I mused.

"You're forgetting the fact that he's a magical creature" Daddy said, amused.

"Oh yeah" it dawned on me, and I blushed as bright as my magically refilling strawberries.

**"This is Argus," Chiron told me. "He will drive you into the city, and, er, well, keep an eye on things."**

"Oh puns, how I love you" Katie sighed.

**I heard footsteps behind us.**

**Luke came running up the hill, carrying a pair of basketball shoes.**

**"Hey!" he panted. "Glad I caught you."**

**Annabeth blushed, the way she always did when Luke was around. I smirked.**

**"Just wanted to say good luck," Luke told me. "And I thought ... um, maybe you could use these."**

**He handed me the sneakers, which looked pretty normal. They even smelled kind of normal.**

**Luke said, **_**"Maia!"**_

"He gave you those?" Hermes asked me shocked.

"Um, yeah" I answered a bit confused.

"He loved those shoes. You must have meant a lot to him for him to just give them to you" he mused, making me blush.

Nico stiffened beside me.

"Well, they were cursed" Grover said reasonably.

"Still, he could have given her any cursed item. I wonder…" he trailed off.

I decided not to add that Luke had visited me over the summer, begging me to join him. I didn't think that would go well with everyone.

**White bird's wings sprouted out of the heels, startling me so much, I dropped them. The shoes flapped around on the ground until the wings folded up and disappeared.**

**"Awesome!" Grover said.**

**Luke smiled. "Those served me well when I was on my quest. Gift from Dad. Of course, I don't use them much these days..." His expression turned sad.**

**I didn't know what to say. It was sweet enough that Luke had come to say good-bye. I'd been afraid he might resent me for getting so much attention the last few days. But here he was giving me a magic gift... It made me blush almost as much as Annabeth.**

I blushed and everyone else laughed.

"I did not blush!" she shrieked, drawing more laughs.

**"Hey" I said. "Thanks."**

**"Listen, Seph ..." Luke looked uncomfortable. "A lot of hopes are riding on you. So just ... kill some monsters for me, okay?"**

**He hugged me and placed a tiny kiss on my forehead.**

You could have heard a pin drop.

"H…He kissed you!" Daddy said shocked.

"I knew she meant something to him!" Hermes said triumphantly.

As everyone started to talk, a loud scream pierced the air.

It was Drew.

She looked quite angry, if the dark splotches on her face meant anything.

"See! She must be the spy! It makes sense, since apparently she meant something to Luke! They're probably in a secret relationship with him and she's telling him all of our secrets!" Drew yelled.

It was so absurd, I just had to laugh.

"Me? The camp traitor? And pray tell, why would I do that? Also, a secret relationship with Luke? Did you forget the fact that he's six or seven years older than me and that he tried to kill me!" I laughed maliciously.

"Well, you're not afraid to have a relationship with Nico, and he's younger than you!" she shrieked.

"I'm not dating Nico! Besides, he's 15, my age. So tell me again how he could be younger than me?" I taunted her.

She jumped out of her seat and was about to charge at me.

"Drew, sit down. Now!" Aphrodite commanded.

Drew sat down, shocked.

"B-but mom! That's not fair, she-" Drew started before her mom cut her off.

"I hardly see how it is unfair. She has done nothing to you and you're trying to get her killed _and _steal her boyfriend at the same time? That's unfair" Aphrodite said crossly.

I decided it was best if I didn't repeat that Nico wasn't my boyfriend… No matter how much I kinda wished he was.

**Luke patted Grover's head between his horns, then gave a good-bye hug to Annabeth, who looked like she might pass out.**

She glared at the book. If it was a person it would be cowering in fear. I snickered, since pretty much everyone knew that Annabeth used to have a crush on Luke.

**After Luke was gone, I told her, "You're hyperventilating."**

"I was not." She huffed.

**"Am not."**

"We heard you the first time." Conner said. She shoots him a death glare.

**"You let him capture the flag instead of you, didn't you?"**

**"Oh ... why do I want to go anywhere with you, Percy?"**

"Because you looooove me?" I grinned at her, making her roll her eyes.

**She stomped down the other side of the hill, where a white SUV waited on the shoulder of the road. Argus followed, jingling his car keys.**

**I turned to Grover, " She makes it sound like I asked for her company" I mused. Grover rolled his eyes at me.**

Annabeth pouted at me and folded her arms. I laughed and blew her a kiss.

**I picked up the flying shoes and had a sudden bad feeling. I looked at Chiron. "I won't be able to use these, will I?"**

**He shook his head. "Luke meant well, Percy. **

"Well, besides putting a curse on them, yeah, I guess he meant well" Thalia snickered.

"I'm still curious about why he gave you the shoes. He could have given you a different pair of shoes that would do the same thing. In fact, that would've worked better than my shoes. My shoes would have tried to counter-act the curse, allowing you time to get free of them." Hermes thought-aloud.

"Luke's always done things that we couldn't make sense of until he explained himself. This is probably just one of those times." Thalia shrugged.

"I don't know. I think there's a lot more to this than what we're hearing" Hermes said.

**But taking to the air ... that would not be wise for you."**

**I nodded, disappointed, but then I got an idea. "Hey, Grover. You want a magic item?"**

**His eyes lit up. "Me?"**

"Thanks a lot Percy" he grumbled good-naturedly.

I grinned sheepishly.

**Pretty soon we'd laced the sneakers over his fake feet, and the world's first flying goat boy was ready for launch.**

_**"Maia!" **_**he shouted.**

**He got off the ground okay, but then fell over sideways so his backpack dragged through the grass. The winged shoes kept bucking up and down like tiny broncos.**

**"Practice," Chiron called after him. "You just need practice!"**

"Oh because we just have _soooo_ much time to practice." I said sarcastically.

**"Aaaaa!" Grover went flying sideways down the hill like a possessed lawn mower, heading toward the van.**

**Before I could follow, Chiron caught my arm. "I should have trained you better, Percy," he said. "If only I had more time. Hercules, Jason—they all got more training."**

**"That's okay. I just wish—"**

**I stopped myself because I was about to sound like a brat. I was wishing my dad had given me something for the quest, like maybe a note, telling me how proud he is of me.**

"That's not bratty" Nico whispered, and nudged me.

I gave him a smile and dropped a tiny kiss on his cheek, making him blush red. Nico was so pale, with his alabaster skin, that his blush was even more obvious. Dad glared fiercely at Nico.

**"What am I thinking?" Chiron cried. "I can't let you get away without this."**

**He pulled a pen from his coat pocket and handed it to me. It was an ordinary disposable ballpoint, black ink, removable cap. Probably cost thirty cents.**

"Hmm, I wonder what that can do." Travis asked. Is he serious, does he not remember the museum incident?

His level of idocy was astounding.

**"Gee," I said. "Thanks."**

**"Percy, that's a gift from your father. I've kept it for years, not knowing you were who I was waiting for. But the prophecy is clear to me now. You are the one."**

**I remembered the field trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, when I'd vaporized Mrs. Dodds. Chiron had thrown me a pen that turned into a sword. Was this possibly ... ?**

"Yes. Yes it is" Nico grinned at me and slung his arm around me, pulling me into his embrace.

**I took off the cap, and the pen grew longer and heavier in my hand. In half a second, I held a shimmering bronze sword with a double-edged blade, a leather-wrapped grip, and a flat hilt riveted with gold studs. It was the first weapon that actually felt balanced in my hand.**

"Do we have any magic items?" Travis asked

"We only have stolen ones." Conner replied.

"What about ones dad gave us?"

"None."

"Oh well, I guess I can live with stolen ones."

**"The sword has a long and tragic history that we need not go into," Chiron told me.**

**"Its name is Anaklusmos."**

**"'Riptide,'" I translated, almost surprised the Ancient Greek came so easily.**

**"Use it only for emergencies," Chiron said, "and only against monsters. No hero should harm mortals unless absolutely necessary, of course, but this sword wouldn't harm them in any case."**

**I looked at the wickedly sharp blade. "What do you mean it wouldn't harm mortals?" How could it not?"**

"I don't think it's good to have mortal killing weapons around you" Malcolm teased me.

I threw my head back and laughed.

"Obviously the builders knew what they were doing."

**"The sword is celestial bronze. Forged by the Cyclopes, tempered in the heart of Mount Etna, cooled in the River Lethe. It's deadly to monsters, to any creature from the Underworld, provided they don't kill you first. But the blade will pass through mortals like an illusion. They simply are not important enough for the blade to to kill.**

"Harry won't like that, huh Perce?" Annabeth laughed.

"Who's Harry?" Aphrodite asked.

"Harry's my best mortal friend. He's clear-sighted." I answered.

"And he's a guy that she totally has the hots for. I can't blame her, he's effing GORGEOUS!" Annabeth yelled.

"Oh! A lover?" Aphrodite smirked.

My eyes widened in protestation.

"No, no, no! That's not what its like at all! Harry and I are just friends. There's absolutely nothing going on between us!" I screamed.

My father looked annoyed.

"What do you mean there's nothing between you, and how Harry's a mortal?" daddy asked me.

"What? What are you talking about? One, I'm pretty sure Harry has a girlfriend and two, of course Harry's a mortal!" I said confused.

"Harry's a lesser god. He's the god of lust and relationships" Poseidon replied.

My jaw dropped, my best mortal friend was really the god of lust and relationships? That does explain why he's always the center of female attention.

"Wow Annie, you sure make some interesting friends" Nico said, breaking the silence.

I giggled while almost crying, this was just too much for one day.

**And I should warn you: as a demigod, you can be killed by either celestial or normal weapons. You are **_**twice **_**as vulnerable."**

**"Pleasant."**

**"Now recap the pen."**

**I touched the pen cap to the sword tip and instantly Riptide shrank to a ballpoint pen again. I tucked it in my pocket, a little nervous, because I was famous for losing pens at school. Or anything else really.**

"It's so annoying! One moment something's in my hand, the next moment it's gone!" I cried, then turned to glare at Nico who was laughing at me.

**"You can't," Chiron said.**

**"Can't what?"**

**"Lose the pen," he said.**

"I wonder how much we could get from selling something like that?" Travis asked his brother.

"Oh shut up." I said

"Hey, I'm just being a good businessman." He said.

I scoffed, "A good businessman, oh please you're a terrible businessman." I said.

"No I'm not." Travis argued.

"Yes you are, if you owned a funeral home no one would die." I said.

**"It is enchanted. It will always reappear in your pocket. Try it."**

**I was wary, but I threw the pen as far as I could down the hill and watched it disappear in the grass.**

**"It may take a few moments," Chiron told me. "Now check your pocket."**

**Sure enough, the pen was there.**

**"Okay, that's **_**extremely **_**cool," I admitted. "But what if a mortal sees me pulling out a sword?"**

"Oh Annie, sweet, naïve Percy. There's this magical little thing called Mist. You see, it prevents mortals from seeing certain things that should be kept hush-hush. Like for instance, a teenaged girl with a sword, kicking monster ass" Nico said cheerfully.

I fought to hide my smile as I raised my eyebrow at him.

**Chiron smiled. "Mist is a powerful thing, Percy."**

**"Mist?"**

**"Yes. Read **_**The Iliad. **_**It's full of references to the stuff. Whenever divine or monstrous elements mix with the mortal world, they generate Mist, which obscures the vision of humans.**

**You will see things just as they are, being a half-blood, but humans will interpret things quite differently. Remarkable, really, the lengths to which humans will go to fit things into their version of reality."**

**I put Riptide back in my pocket.**

**For the first time, the quest felt real. I was actually leaving Half-Blood Hill.**

"It's definitely a strange feeling" Grover said, to which many campers nodded their agreement.

**I was heading west with no adult supervision, no backup plan, not even a cell phone. (Chiron said cell phones were traceable by monsters; if we used one, it would be worse than sending up a flare. Which is kind of annoying.) I had no weapon stronger than a sword to fight off monsters and reach the Land of the Dead.**

**"Chiron ..." I said. "When you say the gods are immortal... I mean, there was a time **_**before **_**them, right?"**

**"Four ages before them, actually. The Time of the Titans was the Fourth Age, sometimes called the Golden Age, which is definitely a misnomer.**

Everyone scoffed at that.

"Golden Age my ass" Hades grumbled.

"It was one of the worst times to be in" my father sighed.

**This, the time of Western civilization and the rule of Zeus, is the Fifth Age."**

**"So what was it like ... before the gods?"**

**Chiron pursed his lips. "Even I am not old enough to remember that, child, but I know it was a time of darkness and savagery for mortals. Kronos, the lord of the Titans, called his reign the Golden Age because men lived innocent and free of all knowledge. But that was mere propaganda. The Titan king cared nothing for your kind except as appetizers or a source of cheap entertainment.**

I huffed at that, I hated being played myself. What would all those poor people feel?

**It was only in the early reign of Lord Zeus, when Prometheus the good Titan brought fire to mankind, that your species began to progress, and even then Prometheus was branded a radical thinker. Zeus punished him severely, as you may recall. Of course, eventually the gods warmed to humans, and Western civilization was born."**

**"But the gods can't die now, right? I mean, as long as Western civilization is alive, they're alive. So ... even if I failed, nothing could happen so bad it would mess up **_**everything, **_**right?"**

"Nah, it wouldn't be that bad. I mean, as long as they returned to their senses and watched over you. If they had done that, you wouldn't have needed to go on the quest in the first place." Apollo assured me.

**Chiron gave me a melancholy smile. "No one knows how long the Age of the West will last, Percy. The gods are immortal, yes. But then, so were the Titans. **_**They **_**still exist, locked away in their various prisons, forced to endure end less pain and punishment, reduced in power, but still very much alive. May the Fates forbid that the gods should ever suffer such a doom, or that we should ever return to the darkness and chaos of the past. All we can do, child, is follow our destiny."**

**"Our destiny ... assuming we know what that is."**

"You were really worried about this weren't you?" Annabeth asked me, with an undecipherable look in her eyes.

I nodded and gave her a shy smile.

**"Relax," Chiron told me. "Keep a clear head. And remember, you may be about to prevent the biggest war in human history."**

**"Relax," I said. "I'm very relaxed. After all, there's nothing to worry about is there? I'll go in and come out. It'll be a breeze." I smirked, hoping I was fooling him, but knowing I wasn't. I thought back to what my mother used to say when I was nervous about something. "If you don't try, how do you know you'll fail?" After taking a deep breath, I descended the hill.**

"My father gave me a sad, but… proud look.

**When I got to the bottom of the hill, I looked back. Under the pine tree that used to be Thalia, daughter of Zeus, Chiron was now standing in full horse-man form, holding his bow high in salute. Just your typical summer-camp send-off by your typical centaur.**

"You know, this kind of makes me wonder what normal kids do for summer camp field trips" I mused.

"Probably something a lot safer, but more boring than what we do" Thalia shrugged.

"Hm, safety's overrated" I decided.

**Argus drove us out of the countryside and into western Long Island. It felt weird to be on a highway again, Annabeth and Grover sitting next to me as if we were normal carpoolers. After two weeks at Half-Blood Hill, the real world seemed like a fantasy. I found myself staring at every McDonald's, every kid in the back of his parents' car, every billboard and shopping mall.**

**"So far so good," I told Annabeth. "Ten miles and not a single monster."**

"You shouldn't talk like that." Nico muttered.

**She gave me an irritated look. "It's bad luck to talk that way, seaweed brain."**

**"Remind me again—why do you hate me so much? Besides the fact that I'm not the nicest person alive? "**

**"I don't hate you."**

**"Hmm, could've fooled me."**

**She folded her cap of invisibility. "Look ... we're just not supposed to get along, okay? Our parents are rivals."**

**"Why does that matter?"**

**She sighed. "How many reasons do you want? One time my mom caught Poseidon with his girlfriend in Athena's temple, which is **_**hugely **_**disrespectful. Another time, Athena and Poseidon-"**

"**I didn't ask for a history lesson, I asked why it mattered to **_**us**_**. Because honestly Chase, you're not worth hating. There's a few people I hate, and you really don't matter enough to me to on that list yet. I just figured that I'd really not waste my time and energy hating you" I cut her off. **

Everyone gaped at me.

"You said that to her?" Malcolm asked, shocked.

I shrugged, it had been the truth.

"I'm kind of glad she did though, we probably wouldn't have ended up being friends if she hadn't. She kind of… opened up my eyes. Helped me see that I was being petty" Annabeth said, smiling at me.

**Annabeth froze, and she stared at me, as if seeing me through different eyes.**

**In the front seat, Argus smiled. He didn't say anything, but one blue eye on the back of his neck winked at me.**

**Traffic slowed us down in Queens. By the time we got into Manhattan it was sunset and starting to rain.**

**Argus dropped us at the Greyhound Station on the Upper East Side, not far from my mom and Gabe's apartment. Taped to a mailbox was a soggy flyer with my picture on it: HAVE YOU SEEN THIS GIRL?**

"Why would Gabe want to look for Percy?" Katie asked.

"Probably for the life insurance. If she's reported missing, the life insurance money would go to him seeing as Sally was missing as well" Nico sneered, tightening his grip on me.

I placed my hand on his chest, hoping to soothe him. He looked down at me and smiled.

**I ripped it down before Annabeth and Grover could notice.**

**Argus unloaded our bags, made sure we got our bus tickets, then drove away, the eye on the back of his hand opening to watch us as he pulled out of the parking lot.**

**I thought about how close I was to my old apartment. On a normal day, my mom would be home from the candy store by now. Smelly Gabe was probably up there right now, playing poker, not even missing her.**

"Why do I have a feeling that Gabe isn't going to have a good ending in this book?" Apollo smirked.

I shrugged, "Maybe because you're the god of prophesies?"

He laughed, "Maybe"

**Grover shouldered his backpack. He gazed down the street in the direction I was looking. "You want to know why she married him, Percy?"**

**I stared at him. "Were you reading my mind or some thing?"**

**"Just your emotions." He shrugged.** **"Guess I forgot to tell you satyrs can do that. You were thinking about your mom and your stepdad, right?"**

**I nodded, wondering what else Grover might've forgotten to tell me.**

**"Your mom married Gabe for **_**you**_**," Grover told me. "You call him 'Smelly,' but you've got no idea. The guy has this aura…. Yuck. I can smell him from here. I can smell traces of him on you, and you haven't been near him for a week."**

"That's disgusting." Katie said.

"I know, and I had taking like a hundred showers before leaving" I shuddered.

**"Thanks," I said. "Where's the nearest shower?"**

**"You should be grateful, Percy. Your stepfather smells so repulsively human he could mask the presence of any demigod. As soon as I took a whiff inside his Camaro, I knew; Gabe has been covering your scent for years. If you hadn't lived with him every summer, you probably would've been found by monsters a long time ago.**

"She must really love you to marry a guy like that." Silena said.

Aphrodite cooed softly.

**Your mom stayed with him to protect you. She was a smart lady. She must've loved you a lot to put up with that guy—if that makes you feel any better."**

**It didn't, but I forced myself not to show it.**

**I'll see her again, I thought. She isn't gone.**

**I wondered if Grover could still read my emotions, mixed up as they were. I was glad he was with me, but I felt slightly guilty that I hadn't been straight with him. I hadn't told him the real reason I'd said yes to this crazy quest. Though, he might already know. I haven't exactly been secretive, considering me bringing it up earlier.**

Nico sighed and buried his face in my hair. I loved it when Nico held me like this. It makes me feel… safe. Which is something I don't get to feel on a daily basis.

**The truth was, I didn't care about retrieving Zeus's lightning bolt, or saving the world, or even helping my father out of trouble. The more I thought about it, I resented Poseidon for never visiting me, never helping my mom, never even sending a lousy child-support check. He'd only claimed me because he needed a job done.**

**All I cared about was my mom. Hades had taken her unfairly, and Hades was going to give her back.**

"You have a lot of guts for a mortal. Good, it means you can keep up with Nico and not get bored. Can't have you dumping him, the poor thing might die" Hades said, with a sly grin.

Nico almost let go of me, but I grabbed on to his arms. I has comfortable goddammit! What gives him the right to ruin that for me? Sure, he's the one holding me, but I should get a say in whether he holds me or not. Right?

My father sent a sharp glare at us, as if sensing my thoughts, and I grinned brightly at him.

_**You will be betrayed by one who calls you a friend, **_**the Oracle whispered in my mind. **_**You will fail to save what matters most in the end.**_

_**Shut up, **_**I told it.**

"Talking to yourself is normal-"Travis started.

"-it's when they answer back, that you have a problem" Conner snickered, finishing hi brother's sentence.

**The rain kept coming down.**

**We got restless waiting for the bus and decided to play some Hacky Sack with one of Grover's apples. Apparently, Chase had something other than being a smartass going for her.**

"Well, that was nicer than I expected" she said.

"How did you two even become friends?" Malcolm asked, very confused.

"I saved her life." Annabeth said quietly.

"What?" Nico asked, shocked. He tightened his hold on me almost to the point where it became unbearable, but I didn't complain.

"You'll see, it should be here somewhere" I replied in a soft voice.

**She could bounce the apple off her knee, her elbow, her shoulder, whatever. I wasn't too bad myself.**

**The game ended when I tossed the apple toward Grover and it got too close to his mouth. In one mega goat bite, our Hacky Sack disappeared—core, stem, and all.**

**Grover blushed. He tried to apologize, but Annabeth and I were too busy cracking up.**

**Finally the bus came. As we stood in line to board, Grover started looking around, sniffing the air like he smelled his favorite school cafeteria delicacy—enchiladas.**

**"What is it?" I asked.**

**"I don't know," he said tensely. "Maybe it's nothing."**

"Nothing always means something." Conner said.

**But I could tell it wasn't nothing. I started looking over my shoulder, too. I was relieved when we finally got on board and found seats together in the back of the bus. We stowed our back packs. Chase kept slapping her Yankees cap nervously against her thigh. I almost took it from her, but I don't think that'll go down to well.**

"You wouldn't dare" she snarled.

I smirked at her, "Try me, blondie"

With a war cry, she launched herself at me. Unfortunately, she ended up jumping on Nico, who still hasn't let me go.

"Ow!" he yelled in pain.

"Oops, sorry Nico!" she grinned sheepishly.

**As the last passengers got on, Annabeth clamped her hand onto my knee.**

"Oh Annabeth, we just met. You need to slow down" I winked, making her laugh.

**"Percy."**

**An old lady had just boarded the bus. She wore a crumpled velvet dress, lace gloves, and a shapeless orange-knit hat that shadowed her face, and she carried a big paisley purse. When she tilted her head up, her black eyes glittered, and my heart skipped a beat.**

**It was Mrs. Dodds. Older, more withered, but definitely the same disgusting face. Couldn't she just die already? **

**I scrunched down in my seat.**

**Behind her came two more old ladies: one in a green hat, one in a purple hat. Otherwise they looked exactly like Mrs. Dodds—same gnarled hands, paisley handbags, wrinkled velvet dresses. Triplet demon grandmothers.**

**I grabbed my sword slowly, re-evaluating my options. If we all took down a fury each, we might have a shot at this.**

"See! I can be optimistic!" I said smugly.

"Yeah, but only during dangerous times Annie. Not before, never before" Nico sighed.

**They sat in the front row, right behind the driver. The two on the aisle crossed their legs over the walkway, making an X. It was casual enough, but it sent a clear message: nobody leaves.**

"I wonder what they would do if a mortal tried to leave?" Katie asked.

"Probably use the mist and make he or she sit back down." I shrugged.

**The bus pulled out of the station, and we headed through the slick streets of Manhattan. "She didn't stay dead long," I said, trying to keep my voice from quivering. "I thought you said they could be dispelled for a lifetime."**

**"I said if you're **_**lucky**_**," Annabeth said. "You're obviously not."**

"**No shit Sherlock" I snarled.**

**"All three of them," Grover whimpered. **_**"Di immortales!"**_

**"It's okay," Annabeth said, obviously thinking hard. "The Furies. The three worst monsters from the Underworld. No problem. No problem. We'll just slip out the windows."**

"Bus windows don't open genius" Thalia snorted.

**"They don't open," Grover moaned.**

**"A back exit?" she suggested.**

**There wasn't one. Even if there had been, it wouldn't have helped. By that time, we were on Ninth Avenue, heading for the Lincoln Tunnel.**

**"They won't attack us with witnesses around," I said. "Will they? No one's, dumb enough to not think that part through."**

**"Mortals don't have good eyes," Annabeth reminded me. "Their brains can only process what they see through the Mist."**

"Just our luck. Not only do we have monsters chasing us, no one's able to help" Clarisse grunted.

**"They'll see three old ladies mauling us, won't they?"**

**She thought about it. "Hard to say. But we can't count on mortals for help. Maybe an emergency exit in the roof ... ?"**

**We hit the Lincoln Tunnel, and the bus went dark except for the running lights down the aisle. It was eerily quiet without the sound of the rain.**

**Mrs. Dodds got up. In a flat voice, as if she'd rehearsed it, she announced to the whole bus: "I need to use the rest-room."**

"They have rest-rooms on buses?" Travis asked. We shrugged.

**"So do I," said the second sister.**

**"So do I," said the third sister.**

**They all started coming down the aisle.**

**"I've got it," Annabeth said. "Percy, take my hat."**

"You let her take your hat?" Athena said surprised.

"She needed it" Annabeth shrugged

**"What?"**

**"You're the one they want. Turn invisible and go up the aisle. Let them pass you. Maybe you can get to the front and get away."**

**"But you guys—"**

**"There's an outside chance they might not notice us," Annabeth said. "You're a daughter of one of the Big Three. Your smell might be overpowering."**

**"I can't just leave you. No matter how much you annoy me Chase, we're a team."**

"Aww! I knew you cared Percy!" she cooed.

I rolled my eyes at her good-naturedly.

**"Don't worry about us," Grover said. "Go!"**

**I placed the hat on my head, I had no more time to argue. When I looked down, my body wasn't there anymore.**

**I started creeping up the aisle. I managed to get up ten rows, then duck into an empty seat just as the Furies walked past.**

**Mrs. Dodds stopped, sniffing, and looked straight at me. My heart was pounding and the blood was racing in my ears.**

**Apparently she didn't sense anything. She and her sisters kept going. I was so tempted to trip this bitch, but I was on a mission.**

**I was free. I made it to the front of the bus. We were almost through the Lincoln Tunnel now. I was about to press the emergency stop button when I heard hideous wailing from the back row.**

"Shit!" Nico swore violently.

I shuffled into his lap, hoping to calm him. I gave Hades a gesture to continue while I spoke to Nico.

He nodded and everyone directed their attention back to him.

When everyone was distracted, I put my hands on his face and directed his eyes to mine.

"It's alright. I'm fine, and you're here to protect me know. It's okay" I whispered gently.

He stared at me for a while before kissing me softly.

My eyes widened in shock and I hesitantly kissed him back. He cupped my face in his hands and deepened the kiss slightly. When oxygen became necessary, we broke apart, staring at each other.

"That's not the point, you shouldn't have been in that situation in the first place" he replied.

I nodded slowly and sat down in his lap properly.

Aphrodite gave me a knowing look and I blushed.

"_Nico kissed me! Nico kissed ME! I can't believe it, what am I suppose to do?" _I thought, panicking slightly, but mostly feeling happy.

**(…)**

**Annabeth drew her bronze knife. Grover grabbed a tin can from his snack bag and prepared to throw it.**

**What I did next was so impulsive and dangerous I should've been named ADHD poster child of the year.**

**The bus driver was distracted, trying to see what was going on in his rear-view mirror.**

**Still invisible, I grabbed the wheel from him and jerked it to the left. Everybody howled as they were thrown to the right, and I heard what I hoped was the sound of three Furies smashing against the windows.**

"Nice." Malcolm grinned at me.

Nico's arms tightened around my waist.

"What's wrong?" I asked him quietly.

"I don't like the way he's looking at you" he growled.

I blushed brightly, "Malcolm's just a friend Nico. Besides, you have no right to be jealous".

He looked at me surprised, before his mouth slid into an easy smirk.

"Playing hard to get, are we? You're gonna make me work for it. It's okay, I love a challenge" he said with a wry grin.

**(…)**

**We careened out of the Lincoln Tunnel and back into the rainstorm, people and monsters tossed around the bus, cars plowed aside like bowling pins.**

"Now wouldn't that be a sight to see." Katie said.

**Somehow the driver found an exit. We shot off the highway, through half a dozen traffic lights, and ended up barreling down one of those New Jersey rural roads where you can't believe there's so much nothing right across the river from New York. There were woods to our left, the Hudson River to our right, and the driver seemed to be veering toward the river.**

**Another great idea: I hit the emergency brake.**

"Because the first idea was just so great." Zeus said sarcastically.

**The bus wailed, spun a full circle on the wet asphalt, and crashed into the trees. The emergency lights came on. The door flew open. The bus driver was the first one out, the passengers yelling as they stampeded after him. I stepped into the driver's seat and let them pass.**

**The Furies regained their balance. They lashed their whips at Annabeth while she waved her knife and yelled in Ancient Greek, telling them to back off. Grover threw tin cans.**

"Did the tin cans actually do anything?" Nico asked from behind me.

"Not really" Annabeth said, grinning at me.

I stuck my tongue out at her and pouted.

**I looked at the open doorway. I was free to go, but I couldn't leave my friends. I took off the invisible cap. "Hey!"**

**The Furies turned, baring their yellow fangs at me, and the exit suddenly seemed like an excellent idea. Mrs. Dodds stalked up the aisle, just as she used to do in class, about to deliver my F- math test. Every time she flicked her whip, red flames danced along the barbed leather.**

**Her two ugly sisters hopped on top of the seats on either side of her and crawled toward me like huge nasty lizards.**

**"Perseus Jackson," Mrs. Dodds said, in an accent that was definitely from somewhere farther south than Georgia. "You have offended the gods. You shall die."**

**"I liked you better dead," I told her.**

Nico snickered into my hair.

**She growled.**

**Annabeth and Grover moved up behind the Furies cautiously, looking for an opening.**

**I took the ballpoint pen out of my pocket and uncapped it. Riptide elongated into a shimmering double-edged sword.**

**The Furies hesitated.**

**Mrs. Dodds had felt Riptide's blade before. She obviously didn't like seeing it again.**

**"Submit now," she hissed. "And you will not suffer eternal torment."**

**"Nice try," I grinned at her.**

"You just love taunting people don't you?" Dad said, slightly amused, slightly horrified.

"Meh, it's the highlight of my day" I grinned.

**"Percy, look out!" Annabeth cried.**

**Mrs. Dodds lashed her whip around my sword hand while the Furies on the either side lunged at me.**

**My hand felt like it was wrapped in molten lead, but I managed not to drop Riptide.**

"That's pretty impressive. Furies whips are way hotter than that, they're made to burn upon impact" Hephaestus said impressed.

"What can I say? Children of Poseidon are amazing" I said, flipping my hair.

**I stuck the Fury on the left with its hilt, sending her toppling backward into a seat. I turned and sliced the Fury on the right. As soon as the blade connected with her neck, she screamed and exploded into dust. Annabeth got Mrs. Dodds in a wrestler's hold and yanked her backward while Grover ripped the whip out of her hands.**

**"Ow!" he yelled. "Ow! Hot! Hot!"**

"Like that" he said amused.

**The Fury I'd hilt-slammed came at me again, talons ready, but I swung Riptide and she broke open like a piñata.**

**Mrs. Dodds was trying to get Annabeth off her back. She kicked, clawed, hissed and bit, but Annabeth held on while Grover got Mrs. Dodds's legs tied up in her own whip. Finally they both shoved her backward into the aisle. Mrs. Dodds tried to get up, but she didn't have room to flap her bat wings, so she kept falling down.**

**"Zeus will destroy you!" she promised. "Hades will have your soul!"**

_**"**_ _**Vade ad inferos!"**_** I yelled.**

**I've been practicing that for a while now. I've usually mis-pronounced it, saying **_**Go to war **_**instead of **_**Go to hell!**_

"At least you managed it when it counted" Grover snickered.

**Thunder shook the bus. The hair rose on the back of my neck.**

**"Get out!" Annabeth yelled at me. "Now!" I didn't need any encouragement.**

**We rushed outside and found the other passengers wandering around in a daze, arguing with the driver, or running around in circles yelling, "We're going to die!" A Hawaiian-shirted tourist with a camera snapped my photograph before I could recap my sword.**

**"Our bags!" Grover realized. "We left our—"**

_**BOOOOOM!**_

I buried my face in my hands, how could we have forgotten everything? All of our stuff, gone.

**The windows of the bus exploded as the passengers ran for cover. Lightning shredded a huge crater in the roof, but an angry wail from inside told me Mrs. Dodds was not yet dead.**

**"Run!" Annabeth said. "She's calling for reinforcements! We have to get out of here!"**

**We plunged into the woods as the rain poured down, the bus in flames behind us, and nothing but darkness ahead. **

"Well, that was an ominous ending" Apollo said after a while.

"We should take a break, you know, have time to do something other than sit around and read" I suggested.

"Great idea, we'll go for a walk on the beach" Nico decided and picked me up so that he could get off the seat.

"Do I get a choice?" I asked amused.

"Nope" he answered, a big smile on his face.

* * *

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

* * *

I've had this chapter laying around for a month, totally forgetting to post it… Oops? Should I bring Harry into the reading? Tell me in a review or PM me.

Star****


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